Post Office Act 1908 Explained

Short Title:	Post Office Act 1908
Type:	Act
Parliament:	Parliament of the United Kingdom
Long Title:	An Act to consolidate Enactments relating to the Post Office.
Year:	1908
Citation:	8 Edw. 7. c. 48
Territorial Extent:	United Kingdom
Royal Assent:	21 December 1908
Commencement:	1 May 1909
Original Text:	http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1908/48/enacted
Use New Uk-Leg:	no

The Post Office Act 1908 (8 Edw. 7. c. 48) is an act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom

This was an extensive act covering many aspect of the mail system and some of the main provisions were: reaffirmation of the General Post Office monopoly for the carrying of mail and it gave the power to fix the postage rates to The Treasury with a minimum rate of at least one penny for an inland letter, a half-penny for a postcard, a book packet should not cost more than one halfpenny for every two ounces in weight in addition to other rates. Special rates were to be implemented for postal packets of books and papers impressed for blind people. Unpaid or deficient postage was to be charged at double the deficiency by the addressee and when rejected by the addressee, was to be returned to the sender who should pay the deficiency.

The Treasury was allowed to make regulation concerning mail with foreign countries.

Petitions and addresses to His Majesty or to Parliament, and on votes and parliamentary proceedings were allowed to be sent free though members of parliament could not receive items weighing more than thirty-two ounces postage free.

Postal censorship was permitted under provisions of the act when warrants are issued by a secretary of state in both Great Britain and in the Channel Islands.^[1]

Some of the lesser provisions were:

• To provide postal services (including cash on delivery services) and telecommunication services
• To provide a banking service of the kind commonly known as a giro system and such other services by means of which money may be remitted (whether by means of money orders, postal orders or otherwise) as it thinks fit
• To provide data processing services
• To perform services for Her Majesty's Government in the United Kingdom, Her Majesty's Government in Northern Ireland or the government of a country or territory outside the United Kingdom or for local or national health service authorities in the United Kingdom.

Ireland

The act remained as the main legislation governing the postal services under the Minister for Posts and Telegraphs in Ireland after the establishment of the independent state in 1922. The Post Office (Amendment) Bill, 1951 repealed and amended several sections of the original act^[2] and was presented by the Minister for Posts and Telegraphs, Erskine Childers in Dáil Éireann.^[3]

Repealed acts

The following acts were repealed mostly in whole and some in part:^[4]

• Post Office (Revenues) Act 1710 (9 Ann. c. 11)
• The Post Office (Repeal of Laws) Act 1837
• The Post Office Management Act 1837
• The Post Office (Offences) Act 1837
• The Post Office (Duties) Act 1840
• The Post Office (Duties) Act 1844
• The Post Office (Duties) Act 1848
• The Post Office (Money Orders) Act 1848
• The Colonial Inland Post Office Act 1849
• The Public Revenue and Consolidated Fund Charges Act 1854
• The Inland Revenue Act 1855
• The Post Office (Duties) Act 1860
• The Post Office Lands Act 1863
• The Telegraph Act 1869
• The Post Office Act 1870
• The Post Office Act 1875
• The Summary Jurisdiction Act 1879
• The Post Office (Money Orders) Act 1880
• The Post Office (Newspaper) Act 1881
• The Post Office (Land) Act 1881
• The Post Office (Reply Post Cards) Act 1882
• The Post Office (Money Orders) Act 1883
• The Post Office (Protection) Act 1884
• The Telegraph (Isle of Man) Act 1889
• The Post Office Act 1891
• The Post Office Act 1892
• The Post Office Amendment Act 1895
• The Post Office and Telegraph Act 1897
• The Post Office (Guarantee) Act 1898
• The Local Government (Ireland) Act 1898
• The Post Office Guarantee (No. 2) Act 1898
• The Post Office (Money Orders) Act 1903
• The Post Office Act 1904
• The Post Office (Money Orders) Act 1906
• The Post Office (Literature for the Blind) Act 1906

Notes and References

1. Web site: Postal and Telegraph Censorship Department, predecessors and successor: Papers . . 3 September 2016 .
2. Web site: Post Office (Amendment) Act, 1951 . Number 17 of 1951 . . 17 July 1951 . 3 September 2016 .
3. Web site: Post Office (Amendment) Bill, 1951—Second Stage . Parliamentary Debates Vol. 126 No. 4 . Office of the Houses of the Oireachtas . 27 June 1951 . 30 August 2016 .
4. Web site: Post Office Act 1908 . British Government . 21 December 1908 . 3 September 2016 .