Ofcom conducted a lengthy investigation and fined Royal Mail £50 million in 2018 and said the group was “disappointing” that it had not reached an agreement with the CWU and Unite CMA unions on the changes it intends to make, including attempts at separate daily parcel delivery; the abandonment of “obsolete methods, such as handwritten notification forms”, through the transition to automated marking and stamping systems; the removal of old letter sorting machines that are no longer needed today; and periodic inspections of processing and distribution in order to adapt to the decrease in letter volumes. The new coalition government after 2010 decided to reactivate its predecessor`s partial privatisation plan for Royal Mail, partly to raise some money, but also in the hope that private sector owners would do better than ministers in getting the company to tackle its deep problems. The necessary laws were passed in June 2011, including the separation of the company`s huge pension obligations, which would have sunk any candidate for privatization. Royal Mail`s financial performance, however, deteriorated further due to the continued decline in mail volume (by 25% between 2006 and 2012), so that it seemed very unlikely that privatisation could be carried out without buyer subsidies, which could lead to state aid problems. . . .