Changes to Royal Mail’s regulatory reporting requirements

March 5, 2023

Ofcom is the UK regulator of the British Postal Service. Its role is like that of the US Postal Regulatory Commission, PRC. But with one notable difference – Ofcom’s regulatory range encompasses ALL communications channels and organizations in the UK, giving it a singular, comprehensive point of view, research, analysis and regulatory outlook on communication in the UK. Regarding Royal Mail, Ofcom’s role is to ‘ensure universal postal service.’

In July 2022, Ofcom published a statement on its review of postal regulation. This included a decision to strengthen its monitoring to support the financial sustainability and efficiency of the universal postal service. In effect “Royal Mail will now be required to submit to us (Ofcom) annually a view of the financial sustainability of the universal service over a five-year period. It will also be required, every five years, to provide a detailed forecast on efficiency; and to publish two measures of its efficiency expectations from that forecast.

It will be required to report annually on its progress against those expectations.

Ofcom consulted on its proposals for these forecasts and reporting, and said this statement confirms them. The changes to the reporting requirements will come into effect at the start of the 2023-24 financial year.

The changes in reporting requirements are encompassed in the following documents.

Main documents

Statement: Changes to Royal Mail’s regulatory reporting requirements

(PDF File, 863.8 KB)

Annex 2: Statutory notification – modifications to the USP Accounting Condition (USPAC)

(PDF File, 297.4 KB)

Annex 3: Direction – modifications to the Regulatory Accounting Guidelines (RAG)

(PDF File, 917.5 KB)

Annex 4: USP Accounting Condition (USPAC) (changes marked up)

(PDF File, 285.5 KB)

Annex 5: Regulatory Accounting Guidelines (RAG) (changes marked up)

(PDF File, 929.9 KB)