RE: OFCOM1 May 2019 20:11
Here is the item. Preliminary findings to be published Q4
Sustaining the universal postal service
3.26 Many people and businesses rely on the universal postal service. We have a duty to secure
the universal postal service, and monitor on Royal Mail’s performance and finances.
3.27 In light of the continuing decline in the letters market and broader changes in the parcels’
market and customers’ expectations, we propose to enhance our monitoring of Royal Mail.
Annual Plan 2019/20
12
We will bring forward some of the work we had planned to undertake as part of our next
review of the regulation of Royal Mail which, as we set out in spring 2017,22 we intended to
undertake by 2022.
3.28 In the next financial year, in addition to our current work programme, we will:
• Carry out a review of Royal Mail’s efficiency. This work will give us more insights into
the likely future sustainability of the universal postal service. We intend to provide our
latest view on the sustainability of the universal postal service in Q3.
• Seek to understand the needs of postal users better. We will carry out research to
review the extent to which the postal market is meeting the reasonable needs of users
in light of changes in the market, in particular the growth in online shopping and
continued decline in letters. We will assess implications arising from changes in postal
user needs. We plan to publish preliminary findings in Q4.