Royal Mail Group
The Shareholder Executive manages the Government’s shareholding in Royal Mail Holdings plc, which includes subsidiaries Royal Mail Group Ltd (the letter delivery business) and Post Office Ltd (which operates the post office network). We report directly to BIS Ministers and its Permanent Secretary, as the shareholding department.
The Shareholder Executive has recently undertaken significant work on Postal Services Act 2011, aimed at safeguarding the future of Royal Mail and the universal postal service. We led on its provisions relating to the ownership of Royal Mail and the Post Office, on pensions and on special administration. We also ran the overall Bill process for Government.
The Act:
- Repeals the statutory requirement for Royal Mail to be owned by the Government, allowing for a sale of shares in the future;
- In preparation for a sale, allows the Government to transfer the accrued pension rights of the members of the Royal Mail Pension Plan to a new Government scheme;
- As part of a sale, provides for 10% of the shares to go to an employee share scheme - the largest of any major privatisation;
- Keeps Post Office Ltd in public ownership, and allows it to move to a mutual ownership model in the future;
- Transfers regulatory responsibility for postal services from Postcomm to Ofcom. At the same time, a new regulatory framework will be established;
- Establishes a special administration regime to ensure the post is still delivered if the universal service provider were ever at risk of entering insolvency proceedings in the future.
More detail on the Act can be found on the Postal Services pages of the BIS website.
