Dear Mr Cross

Re: Request for Internal Review

I am writing in response to your email to [Royal Mail Group request email] dated 10 August 2009. Your email has been treated as a request for an Internal Review of Royal Mail Group's reply to your request for information under the Freedom of Information Act 2000. Royal Mail Group's internal review panel has therefore reviewed the request and I am writing to advise you of their decision. I must apologise for the length of time taken to respond to your letter and for any inconvenience this delay may have caused.

In your request dated 24 June 2009, you asked for the following information:

“Please can you provide me with a breakdown annual cost to the Royal Mail Group of operating the Court Post Office for the last three years for which figures are available?”

“Please can you also provide me with a breakdown of the income from the Court Post Office for the same period? By "breakdown" I mean the analysis you use for internal reporting purposes or any analysis into major components of income/expenditure that you can provide.”

Our original response from Peter Johnson was dated 5^th August 2009. This response should of course have been issued no later than 20 working days following the date of receipt and I must apologise therefore, that we failed to comply with section 10(1) of the Act on this occasion. Mr Johnson's reply referred to costs associated with Post Office Limited employees who provide some of the services to the Court Post Office. However, following the internal review of your request I am able to provide additional information.

In regard to your first question, it is important to understand that there is, in fact, no cost to Royal Mail Group from operating the Court Post Office. As the Royal Public Finances annual report on the official web site of the British Monarchy - www.royal.gov.uk - makes clear, the costs of the Court Post Office are included in the costs of maintaining the Occupied Royal Palaces. Royal Mail Group, therefore, is reimbursed fully for all staff, postage and other costs it incurs in operating the Court Post Office. However, I can include a breakdown of the costs of the Court Post Office over the last three years - attached in annex 1 - and the total costs, of course, tally with the expenditure figures included in the Royal Public Finances annual report. You may also wish to note that the British Monarchy web site includes a description of the work of the Court Post Office.

The second part of your request concerned a breakdown of the income from the Court Post Office for the same period. As I have explained above, Royal Mail Group is fully reimbursed for all costs it incurs in operating the Court Post Office - as shown in annex 1. As was explained in Mr Johnson's original reply, the amounts paid to Royal Mail for provision of these services is published in financial reports on the official web site of the British Monarchy. The amounts paid to Royal Mail correspond to the operational costs shown in annex 1 - as they are recorded by Royal Mail.

I hope that this response now satisfies your request for information. However, if you have any further requests please contact us. In the event that you are not satisfied with this reply, you do have a right to appeal to the Information Commissioner who can be contacted at:

Information Commissioner's Office

Wycliffe House

Water Lane

Wilmslow

Cheshire

SK9 5AF

Telephone: 01625 545 700

www.informationcommissioner.gov.uk

Enc: Annex 1.

Annex 1 “Annual cost to the Royal Mail Group of operating the Court Post Office for the last three years”

Cont…

4 November 2009