Download or read book Royal Mail After Liberalisation written by Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Trade and Industry Committee and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2005-12-20 with total page 56 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Postal Services Commission (Postcomm), the national regulatory authority, began to introduce competition to the UK postal services market in 2003, with new licensed operators able to provide 'end-to-end' services and offer 'consolidation services', and Postcomm is to end Royal Mail's monopoly by fully liberalising the market from January 2006. The Committee's report examines the impact of liberalisation of the postal service market on the quality of postal services; the thinking behind Postcomm's decision to open up the UK market before the rest of Europe; how Postcomm's proposals for the future of postage prices in the UK would impact on the ability of Royal Mail to compete in the open market; and the continuance of Royal Mail's universal service obligation.
Download or read book Improving the Efficiency of Postal Services Procurement in the Public Sector written by Great Britain: National Audit Office and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2006-03-24 with total page 56 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: All public sector organisations rely to varying degrees on postal services, costing nearly £650 million annually of which £250 million is spent by central government departments. The two biggest spenders are the Department for Work and Pensions and HM Revenue and Customs which account for over half this amount, with ten organisations accounting for 95 per cent of the total. Despite the growth in the use of internet and email, at least for the foreseeable future conventional mail will remain essential to the way public bodies communicate with the public. This NAO report examines how public sector organisations can become more effective in their procurement and management of postal services, and identifies six main areas where further improvements can be made in order to realise an estimated £31 million a year in savings by 2008-09. Two accompanying documents are available separately: case studies which examine the use of postal services in five organisations (HCP 946-II, ISBN 0102937354); and a guide which sets out examples of good practice across public and private sectors (HCP 946-III, ISBN 0102937362).
Download or read book A General Theory of Trade and Competition written by Shanker Singham and published by Cameron May. This book was released on 2007 with total page 551 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: General Theory of Trade... is the first academic or practitioner text book to establish a general theory of trade and competition and attempts to bring these two disciplines back together. Shanker Singham demonstrates that there is indeed a powerful interface between these two areas and that by understanding this interface practitioners, be they in governments, companies or law and economics firms can succeed in trade negotiations as well as build up support for free trade principles in a time when they are being increasingly challenged. By noting that consumer welfare is enhanced where trade liberalization is accompanied by competitive markets and property rights protection, the author articulates an overall vision in which future policymakers can frame a different kind of trade debate.
Download or read book The Future of the Post Office written by Peter Robinson and published by Institute for Public Policy Research. This book was released on 1999 with total page 80 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Privatization in the European Union written by David Parker and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2002-01-31 with total page 286 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The book identifies different national characteristics in terms of the motivation to privatise, the scale of privatization and its consequences. In the opening chapters there is a detailed overview of the theoretical economic issues involved in privatisation and an assessment of privatization across the EU. The remaining ten chapters contain national case studies of EU countries which review the history of state ownership and privatization in each of these countries and evaluate the extent of privatisation. The role of European Commission directives in deregulating markets and stimulating privatisation is also examined.
Download or read book Parliamentary Debates Hansard written by Great Britain. Parliament. House of Commons and published by . This book was released on 2010 with total page 854 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book The Postal Services Bill written by Great Britain. Parliament. House of Commons. Business and Enterprise Committee and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2009 with total page 68 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In "Modernise or decline: policies to maintain the universal postal service in the United Kingdom" (Cm. 7529, ISBN 9780101752923) the Hooper review confirmed that Royal Mail Group was the only company capable of delivering the service and proposed a package to deal with the Group's problems. The state should take responsibility for the historic pension deficit; there should be a new regulatory regime, in which mail services would be regulated as part of wider communications services, and, most controversially, there should be a private sector equity partner in Royal Mail. The Government accepted these proposals (Cm. 7560, ISBN 9780101756020) and introduced the Postal Services Bill (HL Bill 24, ISBN 9780108454530). The Committee supports the proposals on the pension fund and the new regulatory regime. But it does not consider that the case has been made that these two reforms can only be made as part of a package which includes the third reform - the involvement of a private sector equity partner in Royal Mail. The provisions contained in the Bill allowing such a partnership are not necessary or desirable as the Government already has powers to sell shares to enable Royal Mail to participate in a joint-venture. There is a lack of clarity over how much investment is needed or where that investment will come from, while the Government appears to have no business plan and has not indicated the use to which any private sector capital would be put. Given this uncertainty the case must rest on its non-financial benefits, and the Committee poses several questions about the proposed partnership which must be addressed.
Download or read book Postal services in Scotland written by Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Scottish Affairs Committee and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2011-01-09 with total page 160 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Committee's report considers two key issues: the maintenance of a universal service and the continuation of a sustainable Post Office network across Scotland. The report welcomes assurances that Scotland would not be made exempt from the universal service obligation. Further clarification is needed on Ofcom's power to designate more than one universal service provider. Ofcom should be required to consult with consumers, small businesses and vulnerable users in remote, rural and island communities in Scotland before it recommends any changes to the existing USO. There are considerable advantages to a long, stable and robust relationship between Royal Mail Group and Post Office Ltd and the Committee recommends that a ten year Inter Business Agreement should be reached prior to any sale of Royal Mail. On the Post Office network, the Bill makes no provision for the number of Post Offices and does not set out criteria for access to the network, a matter of concern because the current criteria could be met by 7,500 branches rather than the existing 11,500 branches. This could lead to many closures in Scotland. The Committee recommends that the Government gives assurances to preserving the existing network of branches. Elements of Outreach Post Offices, which replaced 102 Post Office branches in rural and remote parts of Scotland, are not sufficiently robust or reliable to provide an adequate service, according to the Committee, and it fears the new Post Office Local risks downgrading the service further. Improvements should be delivered as a matter of urgency.
Download or read book Royal Mail Group written by Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Trade and Industry Committee and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2006-12-14 with total page 84 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Royal Mail Group : Ninth report of session 2005-06, Vol. 2: Oral and written Evidence
Download or read book Utility Regulation in Competitive Markets written by Colin Robinson and published by Edward Elgar Publishing. This book was released on 2007-01-01 with total page 264 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Utility Regulation in Competitive Markets is the latest book in the annual series published in association with the Institute of Economic Affairs and the London Business School, which critically reviews the state of utility regulation and competition policy. This significant new volume contains incisive chapters on a number of prominent concerns, including changes in the British system of utility regulation, the spectrum allocation question, liberalization of EU energy markets, security of supply issues, reform in the European postal sector, the future of rail regulation, the cost of capital and Ofcom¿s strategic approach to regulation. Chapters on each topic are followed by comments from regulators, competition authority chairmen and other experts in the relevant fields. By confronting the most important international developments in utility regulation, the authors offer practical policy recommendations for an effective way forward. This book will be of great value to practitioners, policymakers and academics alike who are concerned with regulation, deregulation and policies to promote competition.
Download or read book Study on the Impact of Liberalisation of Inward Cross border Mail on the Provision of the Universal Postal Service and the Options for Progressive Liberalisation written by European Commission and published by . This book was released on 1995 with total page 128 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "This Report presents the results of a study commissioned by DG-IV of the European Commission on the impact of the liberalisation of inward cross-border mail on the provision of universal postal service and the options for progressive liberalisation. Liberalisation of cross-border mail was one of the proposals in the Commission's Green Paper on postal services. We presume in the present report that outward cross-border mail will be fully liberalised, and concentrate on the effects of liberalising inward mail. The study has considered six countries, the United Kingdom, Ireland, France, Spain, the Netherlands, and Germany."--Introduction.
Download or read book Saving the Royal Mail s universal postal service in the digital age written by Richard Hooper and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2010-09-10 with total page 56 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Coalition Government asked Richard Hooper to update the 2008 report "Modernise or decline: policies to maintain the universal postal service in the United Kingdom" (Cm. 7529, 2008, ISBN 9780101752923). He finds the universal postal service still under serious threat, with most of the original causes for concern having got worse: the market and Royal Mail's market share continue to decline; the company has still not modernised sufficiently; the accounting pension deficit has grown from £2.9bn to £8.0bn; the current regulatory regime is not fit for purpose. The 2008 recommendation that private sector capital is required by Royal Mail is reiterated, for several reasons. The company is unlikely to generate sufficient cash to finance the modernisation required. Private sector capital will inject private sector disciplines and reduce the risk of political intervention in commercial decisions. And the state of the public finances means that Royal Mail will find it harder to compete for Government capital against other public spending priorities. But private capital will not be attracted without action on the pension deficit and the regulatory regime. The historic pension deficit should be taken over by the public purse. A new regulatory framework must be created that increases certainly for investors in the postal services sector in general and in Royal Mail in particular. Postcomm has recently consulted on a new framework, and this should be built upon. This update sets out the high level principles that should guide regulation, ensuring the overall burden is reduced.
Download or read book Private Island written by James Meek and published by Verso Books. This book was released on 2015-06-02 with total page 273 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “The essential public good that Margaret Thatcher, Tony Blair and now Cameron sell is not power stations, or trains, or hospitals. It’s the public itself. it’s us.” In a little over a generation the bones and sinews of the British economy – rail, energy, water, postal services, municipal housing – have been sold to remote, unaccountable private owners, often from overseas. In a series of brilliant portraits the award-winning novelist and journalist James Meek shows how Britain’s common wealth became private, and the impact it has had on us all: from the growing shortage of housing to spiralling energy bills. Meek explores the human stories behind the incremental privatization of the nation over the last three decades. He shows how, as our national assets are sold, ordinary citizens are handed over to private tax-gatherers, and the greatest burden of taxes shifts to the poorest. In the end, it is not only public enterprises that have become private property, but we ourselves. Urgent, powerfully written and deeply moving, this is a passionate anatomy of the state of the nation: of what we have lost and what losing it cost us – the rent we must pay to exist on this private island.
Download or read book New Labour s Attack on Public Services written by Dexter Whitfield and published by Spokesman Books. This book was released on 2006 with total page 180 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: New Labour is creating markets in public services on an unprecedented scale. Education, health and social care, children's services, housing, planning and regeneration, the criminal justice system and the welfare state are all being marketised. It has gone well beyond even Tory expectations of the 1990s.Privatisation inevitably follows marketisation, eroding democratic accountability and embedding business interests. The impact will be far reaching. Any benefits in terms of economic, social and sustainable development that are gained through regional strategies and city regions could evaporate if market forces are allowed to run rampant across the public sector.As this timely book makes clear, action by alliances of trade unions, community organisations and civil society organisations is urgently required.
Download or read book Post Office Closure Programme written by Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform Committee and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2008 with total page 150 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This report examines how the Post Office closure programme is being implemented and areas where it could be improved. The Network Change Programme began in July 2007 and the final consultation is scheduled to end in October 2008. This challenging timetable has meant that consultation has been curtailed, and the whole process has been rushed. The Committee does not accept that a reduction to 7,500 offices is acceptable, and a minimum of 11,500 fixed outlets is recommended. Post Office Ltd should be clearer in its approach to public consultation about closures. The Committee is also concerned that access criteria - proximity of population to offices, local transport and geographical constraints - have not been fully taken into account, nor the principle of services being fully accessible to all. The process has been improving with more experience, but there is still room for further improvement and clarity.
Download or read book Re opening the Post written by Great Britain: National Audit Office and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2006-03-22 with total page 60 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In March 2001, the Government set up the Postal Services Commission (Postcomm) to regulate the postal services market in the UK, in order to ensure the provision of a universal postal service and to promote effective competition and safeguard the interests of customers. Following on from an earlier NAO report (HCP 521, session 2001-02 (ISBN 0102913595) published in January 2002, this report examines developments in regulating the quality of service, focusing on the issue of price setting. The report finds that Postcomm has put in place service quality targets to protect the customer, and Royal Mail's performance against its targets has been improving since regulation was introduced. A number of recommendations are made to help improve the quality of service regime, including i) developing the information systems needed to provide a validation system for universal service failure reporting and to monitor collection and delivery times; and ii) monitoring the development of competition in the postal sector.
Download or read book Modernise Or Decline written by Richard Hooper and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2008 with total page 172 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This review (Cm. 7529, ISBN 9780102958393) was established to maintain the universal postal service, that is the collection, sorting, transportation and delivery of letters to all 28 million businesses and residential addresses. It sets out a number of conclusions and recommendations on how the universal service can be maintained. The postal service is seen as having a strong social and economic rationale. Customers place a high value on the affordability of the service, on a uniform tariff, and deliveries on six days per week. The Review states that the post offices provide a vital point of access for residential consumers and small businesses. The universal service is under threat though, with the explosion of digital media - the internet, email, mobile text and broadcasting - which has prompted an unprecedented decline in the letters market. The Review does see a positive future for the postal service, provided that postal companies are able to respond quickly to the changing needs of customers and embrace the opportunities which new technology brings. Although the Royal Mail is the only company currently capable of providing the universal service in the UK, it is much less efficient than many of its European peers and faces severe difficulties. Therefore a radical reform of the Royal Mail's network is inevitable, and the organisation needs to modernise faster. To sustain the universal service, the Royal Mail needs to tackle inefficiency, the pension deficit, and the difficult relationships between the company, unions and regulator. The Review sees two distinct phases to modernisation: (i) Transformation: that is, changing the culture of the organisation, by improving efficiency and reducing costs; (ii) Diversify: that is, finding new sources of revenue either by providing related products or expanding to cover a wider geographical area. The Review believes that the Royal Mail urgently needs commercial confidence, capital and corporate experience to modernise quickly and effectively, and recommends a strategic partnership with one or more private sector companies with demonstrable experience of transforming a major business, ideally a major network business, but that Post Office Ltd should remain wholly within public sector ownership.
