ABSTRACT
The suggestion that the Post Office should be converted from a Government Department into a public corporation was first considered in the early 1930s. A committee was set up at that time under the chairmanship of Viscount Bridgeman ‘to enquire and report as to whether any changes in the constitution, status or system of organisation of the Post Office would be in the public interest’. The Government implemented the Bridgeman recommendation that the Post Office should pay a fixed annual contribution to the Exchequer and that any profits remaining should be available to the Post Office for improvements in service. In the 1960s the Post Office engaged consultants, McKinseys, to carry out a fundamental examination of its organisation and management practices. The office of Postmaster General was abolished and responsibility for running postal, telecommunications and related services was transferred to a new public authority known as the Post Office.
