16th April 2010
Mr Adrian Rutherford
Freedom of Information Unit
2nd Floor
By email: [FOI #30411 email]
Royal Mail Sheffield
Pond Street
Sheffield
S98 6HR
[Royal Mail Group request email]
www.royalmail.com
Dear Mr. Rutherford
Re: Freedom of Information Request
I am writing in response to your email on the 9th march 2010. You will note from previous
correspondence relating to your requests that we withheld the information held relating to
‘Thefts’ under Section 43(2), Commercial Interests, and ‘Disciplinary’ under Section 40,
Personal Information.
Due to all four of your original requests relating of similar subject, Performance in Northern
Ireland, the Internal Review of Royal Mails decision to exempt the information relating to
‘Thefts’ and ‘Disciplinary’ was refused as the four requests together would have exceeded
the cost limit under section under of the Freedom of Information Act.
Your new request, following withdrawal of the cost limited requests, is identical to those
original y submitted on the 1st January 2010. I can confirm that our response, noted below,
remains the same.
On the 9th March 2010 you requested the following information. I will answer your
questions in the order they appeared on your email.
Question A:
Please provide details of all disciplinary action taken against Royal Mail employees in
Northern Ireland in each of the last three years (2007-2009). For each incident,
please provide:
1. the date
2. the town/city/location where the employee was based
3. the employee’s position (i.e. manager, postman etc)
4. details of the offence/misconduct
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 3
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5. what punishment/action was taken
6. where an employee was suspended, detail for how long, and how much was
he/she paid while on suspension.
In response to your request for details of disciplinary action in Northern Ireland, I can
confirm that relevant information is recorded in our Human Resources records. However,
we consider this information to be personal data which is exempt from disclosure under
section 40(2) of the Freedom of Information Act. Royal Mail employees to who this
information relates would have no expectation that this information would be disclosed into
the public domain. We therefore believe that disclosing such information would breach the
principle of fair and lawful processing and such disclosure would not be justifiable. Section
40 is an absolute exemption in this respect and the public interest test does not apply.
Question B:
Please provide details of all thefts by Royal Mail employees in Northern Ireland in
each of the last three years. Please provide:
1. the date
2. location of the theft
3. details of the incident/what was taken (especially if mail was stolen)
4. whether these items were recovered
5. what punishment or disciplinary action followed.
I can confirm that this information is held by Royal Mail in electronic format. However, this
information is considered to be commercial y sensitive and exempt from disclosure under
section 43 of the Freedom of Information Act. This information is likely to be utilised by
Royal Mail’s competitors and presented out of context resulting in unfair damage to
customer confidence. This would place Royal Mail at a significant disadvantage to other
postal operators who offer their own products in direct competition with Royal Mail but are
not required to publish or disclose equivalent information themselves.
This exemption is subject to the public interest test. Although there is public interest in the
performance of Royal Mail, we believe this interest is satisfied through reporting to
Postcomm and Consumer Focus. Royal Mail publishes details of our overall performance
against nationally agreed targets on its website
www.royalmailgroup.com. Information
relating to Royal Mail alone, without equivalent information from competitor’s, would not
enable customers to make an informed choice about the postal operator or service they
wish to use. Further, Royal Mail Group is a publicly owned company and there is a real and
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 3
Cont…
direct public interest in its commercial performance and ability to operate on a level playing
field with competitors in a highly competitive market. Therefore in our view the overriding
public interest lies in maintaining this exemption.
Royal Mail constantly reviews security to ensure the continuing integrity of the mail
operation and we have a zero tolerance approach to any dishonesty. The overwhelming
majority of all letters posted arrive safely at the correct destination but we remain vigilant
to any risk to the operation. It remains the case that the huge majority of our people are
scrupulously honest and take huge care over the mail entrusted to them by our customers.
I am sorry that this information cannot be provided. If you are not satisfied with this
response, you do again have the right to request a review of your revised request. If you
wish to do so please set out in writing your grounds of 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 the decision, and
you will be advised of the outcome.
If, having requested an internal review by Royal Mail, you are still not satisfied with our
response you also have a right of appeal to the Information Commissioner at:
Information Commissioner’s Office
Wycliffe House
Water Lane
Wilmslow
Cheshire
SK9 5AF
www.informationcommissioner.gov.uk
Yours Sincerely
Daniel Tulp
Freedom of Information Case Officer
[Royal Mail Group request email]
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 3 of 3
