Dear Mr Gow

Freedom of Information Request

I am writing in response to your request for information which was submitted online on 10th December 2009. I am sorry for the length of time taken to respond to your request. We aim to answer all written requests for information as quickly as possible, and no later than 20 working days following the date of receipt. However, it was not possible to do so in this case and I apologise therefore for any inconvenience this delay may have caused.

We have considered your request under the terms of the Freedom of Information Act 2000. Your request related to an earlier request for information concerning Royal Mail postboxes. You wrote:

“I made a request for a complete post box location list supplemented with box and collection plate type back in May 2009

http://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/royal_mail_post_box_types_collec#incoming-31588)

I was extremely pleased with the supplied list which also including the collection times for each post box. For that I'm grateful. However, some of the 'IV' areas were incomplete, with no postcode and some boxes listed with just one letter. An example of such entry is below:

IV2 49 S INVERNESS 11:30 AM 11:30 AM L Type SCP7

With only the letter 'S' to go from, finding this box would be near enough impossible. IV7 is one of the worst areas, with more than half the boxes listed as single letters. I appreciate obtaining the post codes for the boxes is not always possible and many are missed throughout the whole document; however, a single letter for the address is just not acceptable.”

You requested the following new information:

“I therefore request, an up to date document of the whole of the IV postal areas (IV1 to IV56) including the proper addresses (at least a name to go from), along with collection times, post codes if possible, box types and CP codes.”

The information provided in response to your earlier request was the information that is recorded in Royal Mail's central database of final plate data. This is Royal Mail's definitive source data for Postbox Collection Plate times which is used to measure collections performance as reported on a quarterly basis to Postcomm. This information is published in Royal Mail's quality of services reports on our website - www.royalmailgroup.com. There is no operational need or requirement for this central database to record the level of detail specified in your request. Where you have identified gaps in the information, that data is simply not held centrally by Royal Mail.

Royal Mail has around 116,000 items of street furniture nationwide and information relating to collections from and maintenance of these postboxes is of course held locally across Royal Mail's operations. However, to indentify, retrieve and extract full addresses, postcodes and other requested data for every postbox would require an enormous level of resource from Royal Mail. It is important to stress that there is no operational need to record this level information centrally - the management and maintenance of Postboxes is the responsibility of local Royal Mail sections.

We have looked into the possibility of providing the information you have requested for the IV postcode area alone. However, due to the large number of postboxes in operation even in a single postcode area, we believe that it would significantly exceed the appropriate cost limit set out under section 12 of the Freedom of Information Act. The appropriate limit for Royal Mail Group is set at £450. This represents the estimated cost of one person spending 18 hours in determining whether we hold the information, and in locating, retrieving and extracting the information. In this case it would be necessary to indentify and retrieve local collections and maintenance records for hundreds of postboxes in the IV postcode area in order to identify and extract the information you require. Searching for relevant information for each of these postboxes would take well in excess of 18 hours. Consequently, Royal Mail Group is not obliged by the Freedom of Information Act 2000 to respond to this particular request (see section 12(1) of the Act).

We have also considered whether it is possible to provide you with any appropriate advice and assistance as to how you could revise your request so that it may be answered within the cost-limit. For example, it may be possible to provide information in relation to a much smaller number of specific postboxes. However, we do not believe that it is possible to retrieve information for every postbox in the IV postcode area within the limit. If you do wish to submit a new request for information, please do contact us and we will be happy to try to assist you further. Any reformulated request we receive from you will need to be treated as a fresh request under the terms of FOIA.

I am sorry that your request cannot be met on this occasion. If you are not satisfied with this response, you do have the right to request an internal review. If you wish to do so please set out in writing your reason(s) for appeal and send to the Head of Information Compliance, Royal Mail Group, Company Secretary's Office, 100 Victoria Embankment, LONDON, EC4Y 0HQ. An internal panel will then review your request, and you will be advised of the outcome.

If you decide to appeal and are still not satisfied with our response you also have a right to appeal to the Information Commissioner at:

Information Commissioner's Office

Wycliffe House

Water Lane

Wilmslow

Cheshire

SK9 5AF

Telephone: 01625 545 700

www.informationcommissioner.gov.uk

Cont…

08^th February 2010