24 November 2010
Robert Whittaker
Freedom of Information Unit
2nd Floor
By Email: [email address]
Royal Mail Sheffield
Pond Street
Sheffield
S98 6HR
[Royal Mail Group request email]
www.royalmail.com
Dear Mr Whittaker
Re: Freedom of Information Act Request
Since my letter to you dated 30th June, Royal Mail has been in further communication with
the Information Commissioner’s Office regarding your request for information on the cost of
maintaining the Postcode Address File. We recognise that in this case there are a number
of areas where we could have done better, and I am therefore writing to apologise for our
handling of this particular request and your subsequent complaint to Royal Mail, and to
address the points of concern that you have raised.
Royal Mail works extremely hard to ensure that the statutory deadline for requests and
timescales set out for appeals by the Information Commissioner are met. In each of the
past 12 months over 90% of all requests dealt with under the terms of FOIA have been
answered within 20 working days. We also recognise that responses should be provided
promptly within that time, and we make a concerted effort to do this. However on many
occasions, due to the processes and checks involved in replying to requests for information
under FOI, this does mean that we cannot provide an immediate response and often replies
are necessarily sent on the 19th or 20th day. I regret that in this case it was not possible to
reply to you before day 20, but can assure you that we close all cases down as soon as
practically possible.
After discussion with the Information Commissioner’s Office, I accept that our refusal of your
request failed to properly address the balance of public interest in this information, in that it
did not cite the public interest factors in favour of disclosure. We look to identify and correct
issues such as this when a case is considered at Internal Review and on this occasion this
did not happen, for which I apologise. I will review this and feed back in to our internal
review and request handling procedures to ensure that our teams are fully aware of the
requirements of Section 17 of the Act.
Royal Mail Group Ltd is registered in England and Wales. Registered number 4138203. Registered office: 100 Victoria Embankment, London, EC4Y 0HQ.
© Royal Mail Group Ltd 2010 – Page 1 of 2
Cont…
When a case proceeds to Internal Review our target is to complete the review and reply
within 20 working days, or in exceptional circumstances 40 days. This target is met in the
majority of cases, though clearly we failed do so in this case. A number of factors
contributed to the length of time taken to respond to your request for an Internal Review,
and on several occasions our Review Panel required more evidence to reach a decision.
However, we accept that the time taken on this occasion was not acceptable and that a
decision should have been reached much sooner.
Royal Mail also recognises the duty to provide advice and assistance with requests, and to
those considering making a request, under section 16 of the FOIA. In this instance, the FOI
Unit could have worked more closely with you and provided more help in dealing with your
request. In hindsight, if we had discussed your requirements with you directly and at an
earlier stage in the process, the information which was later disclosed to you could have
been provided much sooner and the matter hopefully resolved to your satisfaction.
I would therefore like to apologise for the way in which this case was handled and for the
delays you experienced, but hope that the information which was ultimately disclosed to
you was of use. We take our obligations under FOI very seriously and have robust
procedures in place to meet them. Where things do go wrong, we look to improve going
forward and will use this case to review our case handling procedures and the quality of our
responses.
If you have any queries or concerns regarding this, please contact me at
[Royal Mail Group request email].
Yours sincerely
Colin Young
Freedom of Information Manager
Freedom of Information Unit
CC: Thomas Thwaites, Senior Case Officer, Information Commissioner’s Office, Wycliffe
House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire SK9 5AF.
Royal Mail Group Ltd is registered in England and Wales. Registered number 4138203. Registered office: 100 Victoria Embankment, London, EC4Y 0HQ.
© Royal Mail Group Ltd 2010 – Page 2 of 2
