Effective March 21, 2024, the Postal Service™ is revising the Individual Country Listing for the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland in Mailing Standards of the United States Postal Service, International Mail Manual (IMM®) to note that blades are prohibited to the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.
This revision is based on a formal request that Royal Mail (including Parcelforce) (the designated postal operator of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland) made through the Universal Postal Union via International Bureau Circular 32, dated February 19, 2024.
Mailing Standards of the United States Postal Service, International Mail Manual (IMM)
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Individual Country Listings
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United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
Country Conditions for Mailing
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Prohibitions
[Add an entry in alphabetical order to read as follows and remove the entry beginning with “Switchblade knives” (the information from that entry is included in the added entry):]
Bladed articles (as defined by the Criminal Justice Act 1988) and bladed products (as defined by the Offensive Weapons Act 2019). Such items include, but are not limited to, knife blades, kitchen knives (regardless of size or design), bread knives, knives that can be used for hobbies and trades (regardless of whether they are marketed as knives, such as utility knives and snap-off cutters, also called box cutters), gardening and farming tools that have a blade, trade tools that could commonly be described as knives, butcher’s knives (including meat cleavers), cutlery knives, scissors with sharp edges, sporting equipment with blades, replica and antique knives (including those used for re-enactment purposes), handmade and bespoke knives, open razors (where the blade is exposed), axes, swords, survival knives, machetes, switchblade knives (also known as flick knives), and gravity knives.
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Although effective March 21, 2024, the Postal Service will incorporate this revision into a later edition of the online IMM (after the one scheduled for April 1, 2024). The IMM is available via Postal Explorer® at pe.usps.com.
— Product Classification,
Product Solutions, 3-21-24
