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Postal Services Bill [HL]

The amendment deals with appeals. The Bill follows the revision of common rules for postal services, directive 97/67/EC by virtue of directive 2008/06/EC. It also rationalises the national regulatory arrangements by appointing Ofcom as the national regulatory authority. Under the three relevant Acts—the Competition Act 1998, the Enterprise Act 2002 and the Communications Act 2003—Ofcom is already a national regulatory authority for telecommunications and a concurrent national competition authority with OFT. Under these Acts, appeals against or applications for judicial review of Ofcom decisions usually go to the specialist Competition Appeal Tribunal. There are special arrangements for so-called price control matters to be referred by that tribunal to the Competition Commission for its determination. It would seem sensible to make similar arrangements for postal services by providing for appeals to the tribunal. In particular, such arrangements would mean that, pending the outcome of any such appeal, the decision of the national regulatory authority would stand unless the tribunal, as a specialist body accustomed to such matters, decided otherwise, thereby conveniently transposing Article 22(3) of the revised European directive. Price control matters could follow the pattern already provided for in the Communications Act 2003, with a determination being made by the Competition Commission on reference of appropriate questions settled by the tribunal. I beg to move.