Postal Services Act 2000
The Postal Services Act 2000 is an act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, relating to the postal industry. It established an industry regulator, Postcomm, a consumer watchdog, Postwatch, required a "universal service" of post to be provided and set up rules for licensing postal services operators. It also converted the public branch of the postal industry, the Post Office, from a statutory corporation to a public limited company, wholly owned by the government.
Background
Second Reading of the bill, and debate, introduced by Secretary of State for Trade and Industry, Stephen Byers.Parliamentary Undersecretary Alan Johnson summed up the bill before the vote.
Liberalisation
The Postal Services Regulations 1999The Postal Services Regulations 2002, r.8
Section 11 allows PostComm to grant licences that would otherwise contravene section 6, the general prohibition on conveying a letter from one place to another. Section 7 stated that section 6 would not be contravened by carrying letters under £1 value.