British Commonwealth and Foreign Parcel Post Regulations 1965
| Jurisdiction | UK Non-devolved |
| Citation | SI 1965/1734 |
1965 No. 1734
POST OFFICE
The British Commonwealth and Foreign Parcel Post Regulations 196520thSeptember 1965
19thOctober 1965
13thDecember 1965
ARRANGEMENT OF REGULATIONS
PART I
Interpretation and application
1. Interpretation.
2. Application.
PART II
Rates of postage and general conditions
3. Rates of postage.
4. Prohibitions.
5. Packing.
6. Limits of weight and size.
7. Fees for customs clearance.
8. Posting.
9. Payment of postage and fees.
10. Treatment of irregular parcels.
11. Charges on incoming parcels.
12. Return of outgoing parcels.
13. Withholding of parcels from delivery or return.
14. Undeliverable parcels.
15. Air parcels.
PART III
Postal facilities
16. General.
17. Express delivery.
18. Cash on delivery parcels.
19. Delivery free of charges.
20. Insured parcels.
21. Compensation.
22. Redirection by the public.
23. Advice of delivery and enquiries.
24. Parcels in bond.
PART IV
General
25. Parcels posted on ships of the Royal Navy or by Forces abroad.
26. Remission of postage and fees.
27. Application of Inland Post Regulations.
28. Saving.
29. Revocation.
30. Citation and commencement.
SCHEDULES
1. Cash on Delivery Parcels.
2. Insurance and Compensation.
3. Additional Fees for Re-addressing Parcels in Bond.
4. Application of Inland Post Regulations.
5. Regulations Revoked.
I, The Right Honourable Anthony Neil Wedgwood Benn, M.P., Her Majesty's Postmaster General, by virtue of the powers conferred on me by sections 5, 8, 10, 11, 15 and 81 of the Post Office Act 1953(a) (as amended or substituted by section 28 of and the Schedule to the Post Office Act 1961(b)), and of all other powers enabling me in this behalf, do hereby make the following regulations:
PART I
INTERPRETATION AND APPLICATION
Interpretation
1.—(1) In these regulations, except so far as the contrary is provided or the context otherwise requires, the following expressions have the meanings hereby respectively assigned to them:
"the Act" means the Post Office Act 1953;
"air parcel" means an outgoing parcel intended by the sender to be conveyed through any part of its course in the post by an air mail service;
"bullion" means uncoined and unmanufactured metal;
"cash on delivery parcel" means a parcel upon which, in accordance with a postal arrangement, the Postmaster General or the Postal Administration of a country or place outside the British postal area undertakes at the request of the sender to secure the collection of a sum of money (in these regulations referred to as a "trade charge") on his behalf from the addressee of the parcel as a condition of delivery and upon which the sender has paid the fee for the cash on delivery service;
(a) 1 & 2 Eliz. 2. c. 36.
"coin" means coin whether or not current in the British postal area or elsewhere, except such as is used or designed for purposes of ornament;
"customs duty" includes purchase tax;
"incoming" means received at a post office in the British postal area through the post;
"jewellery" means:
(a) gold, silver or platinum or other precious metal in a manufactured state (that is to say, a state in which value is added to the raw material by skilled workmanship), and in this definition are included any coins used or designed for purposes of ornament;
(b) diamonds and precious stones;
(c) watches, the cases of which are entirely or mainly composed of gold, silver or platinum or other precious metal; and
(d) any article of a like nature which, apart from workmanship, has an intrinsic or marketable value;
"letter" includes any communication in the nature of current and personal correspondence;
"member of the armed forces of the United Kingdom or of any other Commonwealth country" and "member of the armed forces of any State allied with the United Kingdom" include a member of any auxiliary service of such respective forces, and a person attached to such respective forces (although not a member thereof) who is permitted to use a forces address;
"outgoing" means posted in the British postal area;
"parcel" means a postal packet which is posted as a parcel in accordance with the provisions of these regulations or any regulations amending or replacing the same, or is received at a post office in the British postal area from abroad by parcel post;
"postal arrangement" means an arrangement made by Her Majesty or by the Postmaster General with respect to the conveyance by post of parcels between the British postal area and places outside that area, or between places outside that area, whether through that area or not;
"postal form" means a form issued by or under the authority of the Postmaster General;
"prescribed" means prescribed by the Postmaster General;
"trade charge" has the meaning assigned to it in the foregoing definition of "cash on delivery parcel".
(2) Any reference in these regulations to the provisions of any enactment or regulations shall be construed, unless the context otherwise requires, as a reference to those provisions as amended re-enacted or replaced by any subsequent enactment or regulations.
(3) Any reference in any regulations to the provisions of any regulations revoked by these regulations shall be construed, unless the context otherwise requires, as a reference to the corresponding provisions of these regulations.
(4) The Interpretation Act 1889(a) applies for the interpretation of these regulations as it applies for the interpretation of an Act of Parliament, and as if these regulations and the regulations hereby revoked were Acts of Parliament.
(a) 52 & 53 Vict. c. 63.
Application
2. These regulations, except where otherwise expressed, apply exclusively to parcels transmitted by post from or to the British postal area otherwise than under the Inland Post Regulations 1963(a).
PART II
RATES OF POSTAGE AND GENERAL CONDITIONS
Rates of postage
3.—(1) There shall be charged and paid on outgoing parcels (except air parcels) such rates of postage as the Postmaster General may fix not exceeding £4 per parcel up to a maximum weight of 22 pounds.
(2) There shall be charged and paid on outgoing air parcels such rates of postage as the Postmaster General may fix not exceeding £2 per pound or £1 per half pound or fractional part of a pound or half pound (as the case may be) up to a maximum weight of 22 pounds.
(3) The Postmaster General shall publish from time to time in the London, Edinburgh and Belfast Gazettes or in such other manner as he may determine the several rates of postage payable under these regulations:
Provided that the rates of postage in respect of outgoing parcels to which these regulations apply which were in force immediately before the commencement of these regulations shall continue in force until superseded by rates fixed under this regulation, and shall take effect as if they had been fixed and published under this regulation.
(4) In any proceeding relating to the postage payable in respect of parcels transmitted under these regulations, the production of a copy of the Gazette stating the rate in question shall be conclusive evidence that such rate is the postage for the time being payable as aforesaid.
Prohibitions
4.—(1) Save as the Postmaster General may either generally or in any particular case allow, there shall not be conveyed or delivered by post any parcel of a description referred to in section 11(1)(a), (b) or (c) of the Act.
(2) Subject to the powers of the Postmaster General under regulation 10, there shall not be posted or conveyed or delivered by post any parcel:
(a) containing:
(i) opium, morphine, cocaine, or other narcotic:
Provided that such narcotics may be sent for medical or scientific purposes to countries which admit them when sent for those purposes by parcel post;
(ii) any living creatures, other than bees, leeches and silkworms;
(iii) anything which by the law of the country or place in which the parcel is posted or to which it is addressed or of any country or place through which it may pass, it is unlawful respectively to send, import or convey by parcel post;
(iv) save as the Postmaster General may either generally or in any particular case allow, coin, gold bullion, and silver bullion, or silver partly manufactured exceeding £200 in value;
(v) any imitation of a bank note within the meaning of section 38 of the Criminal Justice Act 1925(b);
(a) S.I. 1963/2137 (1963 III, p. 4745) as amended by S.I. 1965/502 (1965 I, p. 1251).
(b) 15 & 16 Geo. 5. c. 86.
(b) containing or bearing any fictitious stamp (not being a fictitious stamp which is authorised to be made by or under Post Office regulations) or any counterfeit impression of a stamping machine used under the direction or by the permission of the Postmaster General, or any counterfeit of any other impression authorised by or under these regulations to be used to denote payment of postage or fees;
(c) containing or having thereon any letter, except so far as may be permitted by the relative postal arrangement;
(d) having thereon, or on the cover thereof, any words, letters or marks (used without due authority) which signify or imply, or may reasonably lead the recipient thereof to believe, that the parcel is sent on Her Majesty's service;
(e) of such a form or colour or so made up for transmission by post as to be likely in the opinion of the Postmaster General to embarrass the officers of the Post Office in dealing with the parcel;
(f) having anything written, printed or otherwise impressed upon or attached to any part of the parcel which, either by tending to prevent the easy and quick reading of the address of the parcel or by inconvenient proximity to the stamp or stamps used to denote payment of postage or fees, or in any other way, is in itself, or in the manner in which it is written, printed, impressed or attached, likely in the opinion of the Postmaster General to embarrass the officers of the Post Office in dealing with the parcel;
(g) bearing any stamp or impression of a stamping machine denoting payment of...
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