Response to Royal Mail Access Pricing Review
As the statutory representative for consumers of postal services across England, Wales and Scotland, the Citizens Advice Service and the Consumer Council for Northern Ireland are pleased to respond to Ofcom’s consultation on Royal Mail Access Pricing and its specific aims to amend the regulatory framework relating to the Universal Service Provider Access (USPA) Condition.
We work with the consumer advocacy bodies across the UK (Citizens Advice Scotland and the Consumer Council for Northern Ireland) to conduct research and evidence on postal userneeds and deliver strategic projects that contribute to improving the operation of the postal market for all consumers, assessing the value of postal services across the universal service obligation (USO), mail and parcels.
Our concerns on the proposed amendments to the regulatory framework centre around ensuring that whilst encouraging the sustainability of the universal service the new access arrangements are ‘fair and reasonable’ and do not adversely affect competition in the area of bulk mail delivery and USO mail. As such, we have provided in turn a partial response to the consultation focused on those areas we feel are within our remit to submit comment.