<P> In 2008, due to a continuing fall in mail volumes the government commissioned an independent review of the postal services sector by Richard Hooper CBE, the former deputy chairman of Ofcom . The recommendations in the Hooper Review led Business Secretary Lord Mandelson to seek to part privatise the company by selling a minority stake to a commercial partner . However, despite legislation for the sale passing the House of Lords, it was abandoned in the House of Commons after strong opposition from backbench Labour MPs . The government later cited the difficult economic conditions for the reason behind the retreat . </P> <P> After the departure of Adam Crozier to ITV plc on 27 May 2010, Royal Mail appointed Canadian Moya Greene as chief executive, the first woman to hold the post . </P> <P> On 6 December 2010, a number of paid - for services including Admail, post office boxes and private postboxes were removed from the Inland Letter Post Scheme (ILPS) and became available under contract . Several free services including petitions to parliament and the sovereign, and poste restante were removed from the scheme . </P> <P> Following the 2010 general election, the new Business Secretary in the coalition government, Vince Cable, asked Richard Hooper CBE to expand on his report, to account for EU Directive 2008 / 6 / EC which called for the postal sector to be fully open to competition by 31 December 2012 . Based on the Hooper Review Update the government passed the Postal Services Act 2011 . The Act allowed for up to 90% of Royal Mail to be privatised, with at least 10% of shares to be held by Royal Mail employees . </P>

When did royal mail stop delivering twice a day