We have commenced a review of the current Standard Access Agreements and are seeking customer views on the terms for a new Standard Access contract to be available from April 2013.

The postal market has changed significantly since the first Access Agreement was agreed in 2004. Although there have been some changes agreed with customers over the years, the Access contracts have remained substantially unchanged. Since that time, letter volumes in the UK have declined from 20 billion (2004/05) to 15 billion (2011/12), while Royal Mail has found it increasingly hard to ensure that the Universal Service is financially sustainable.

With Access services now accounting for 7.2 billion items (2011/12), around half of addressed letter volumes in the UK, it is essential that all Access arrangements are placed on a more commercial footing. Our proposals on how we may achieve this are detailed in the Discussion Document below.

The Closing date for receipt of Customer feedback is November 16th 2012.