Royal Mail PLC (LSE:RMG) will be required to submit to Ofcom annually a view of the financial sustainability of the universal postal service over a five-year period, the regulator has confirmed, as it launched a consultation into its review of postal reporting regulation methodology.
The consultation is on the way in which this information will be calculated and presented. The original Ofcom decision was made in July and, as part of that, the regulator decided to strengthen its monitoring framework in relation to reporting on the financial sustainability and efficiency of the universal mail service.
Royal Mail will also be required, every five years, to provide a detailed confidential forecast containing certain efficiency metrics over a five-year period and publish two measures of its efficiency expectations from that forecast. It will be as well required to publish annually its progress against those expectations.
The consultation sets out how we propose to give effect to these decisions, Ofcom said in a statement. The changes to the reporting requirements are due to come into force at the start of the 2023/24 financial year, added the regulator.
The regulatory reporting methodology consultation comes as Royal Mail faces more strike action, with workers set to walk out again at the end of this month in a continuing dispute over pay.
Staff held strikes over three days in August and September. A fourth was due to take place on Friday September 9, but it was cancelled after news broke that Queen Elizabeth had died.
The Communication Workers Union (CWU) has now organised a 48-hour walkout from Friday, September 30 to Saturday, October 1. 2022.
More than 115,000 members took place in the first round of strikes, and a similar number of workers are expected to strike as during the next round of action.