Postcode locations for SW9

Dear Mr Pope

Thank you for your request for information received on 21/10/08, which we
are considering under the Freedom of Information Act. Under the Act you
should expect a reply from us to be sent by 18/11/08, which is twenty
working days from receipt of your request.

If for any reason we are unable to provide you with a full response within
that time, we will contact you explaining the reasons for this and giving a
revised date by which we will reply.

If in the mean time you have any questions or would like to contact us
about your request, please contact us by telephone 01252 806513 or
alternatively email or write to us at the address below. Please be assured
that we are giving this our attention and will get back to you shortly.

Yours sincerely

Marie Teasdale
[Royal Mail Group request email]
Freedom of Information Unit
PO Box 341, ALDERSHOT, GU11 1WW

Royal Mail is a trading name of Royal Mail Group Ltd. Registered in England
and Wales.
Registered number 4138203. Registered office at 148 Old Street, LONDON EC1V
9HQ

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Dear Mr Pope,

Re: Freedom of Information Request

Thank you for your recent request for information regarding postcodes and
locations of postcodes for the SW9 postal region. I have looked into this
matter and our Address Management Customer Services department have advised
me Royal Mail do already offer products that would assist you in your
request.

Details of all the products available can be found on our website but
Postzon Data may be of particular interest, Postzon provides grid
references to the nearest 100m of the centroid of each geographical
postcode. This can be purchased either as Raw Data, for programmers use or
within a software product such as Royal Mail UK Addresses, Address Manager.
There is a cost involved in these products and details can be found
following the link below to our website.
http://www.royalmail.com/portal/rm/jump1...

Solutions Providers can also supply such products as maps and software
solutions. These are third party companies that are licenced to use our
address data within their own services and products. A list of these can be
found on the following web link
http://www.royalmail.com/portal/rm/solut...

If you do have any further queries regarding the postcode products
available you can contact the Address Management Unit directly via a number
of methods all of which are detailed in this link,
http://www.royalmail.com/portal/rm/conte...

Under section 21 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000, we are not
required to provide the information in response to a request if it is
already reasonably accessible to you. In this case the information is
accessible from our website, and included in our publications scheme.

I hope this information is useful to you, if you have any further requests
or have any problems accessing this information please let me know. If
you're unhappy with the way your request has been handled, you do have a
right to request an internal review. If you wish to please set out in
writing your grounds for doing so and send to the Head of Information
Compliance, Royal Mail House, Company Secretary's Office, 148 Old Street,
LONDON, EC1V 9HQ. An internal panel will then review the 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 of appeal to the Information Commissioner's Office at:
Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire, SK9 5AF

Yours sincerely

Marie Teasdale
Freedom of Information Unit
Company Secretary's Office
[Royal Mail Group request email]

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Dear Mr Pope

Re: Freedom of Information Request

Thank you for your email of 3rd November 2008 in regards to your request
for data covering the SW9 postal district. Your email is receiving our
attention and being dealt with under Royal Mail Group’s internal review
process.

In accordance with guidelines from the Information Commissioner’s Office,
Royal Mail will answer all appeals and requests for internal review of FOI
requests as soon as it reasonably can. This will usually be within 20
working days and in any case no later than 40 days from receipt of the
appeal. I will write to you again once the internal review has been
concluded.

In the mean time if you have any questions or would like to add any further
information for consideration then please do not hesitate to contact me.

Yours sincerely

Martin Rush
Head of Information Compliance
[email address]

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Dear Mr Pope

I am writing in response to your email dated 04 November 2008, which was
treated by Royal Mail as a request for an Internal Review under the Freedom
of Information Act.

You had previously requested on 20 October “a list of postcodes and
locations of those postcodes for the SW9 postal region,” and in our reply
dated 03 November we explained that the information you requested was
available from Royal Mail through Address Management products, and
therefore we considered it to be exempt from disclosure under the Freedom
of Information Act. You replied to this on the 3 November 2008 explaining
that you were asking for “raw data covering the SW9 postal district under
FOI” and not Royal Mail’s Address Management products. However, as the
Address Management Products referred to do contain this raw data, we
believe that this point was covered by our previous reply of 3 November
2008. Therefore your request was referred to our Internal Review Panel to
consider whether or not we had replied appropriately in line with
obligations under the Act. This review has now been completed and I am
writing to advise you of the outcome of their decision.

The Panel considered whether the information you requested for the SW9
postcode area should be disclosed under the terms of FOI. Detailed
information on all postal addresses and postcodes in the United Kingdom has
been built up and managed by Royal Mail. Many organisations including new
postal operators, banks, insurance companies and others offering to deliver
goods to the public’s door have a need for this information. It would be
very time-consuming and costly for anyone to try and recreate the
information, and it therefore has a commercial value. Royal Mail licenses
the data, for a fee, allowing others to use it, and releasing this
information into the public domain under FOI would therefore be likely to
undermine its value to Royal Mail and other licensed resellers.

The postcode address file is the central database owned and managed by
Royal Mail that holds all the postcodes and postal addresses -
approximately 27.5 million of them - in the UK. Under the conditions of
its licence, Royal Mail is obliged to maintain the postcode address file
and make it available to any person who wishes to use it on terms that are
reasonable. As we explained in our previous reply, Royal Mail offers
various products containing elements of the Postcode Address File.
Information can be purchased as raw data, like you requested, or as part of
a complete product. The costs involved vary depending on the product and
the purchaser’s requirements. Our Address Management Unit can advise
potential users on the type of products available depending on their
particular needs. You can contact the Address Management Unit by phone on
08456 066 854 (option 2), by email at [email address], or
by writing to the following address:

Customer Support Team
Address Management Unit
Royal Mail
Fourth Floor
Slindon Street
PORTSMOUTH
PO1 1AF

In reviewing your request, the Panel first considered whether the
information you have requested is covered by the Address Management
Products above. As mentioned, data can be provided in a variety of
formats, including raw data for specific postcode areas. Raw data for the
SW postcode area is available via this route, and this will contain all
data for SW9 as requested. The Panel were therefore satisfied that the
information you requested was available from the Address Management Unit.

Address Management products are listed in Royal Mail Group’s publication
scheme, where it is noted that charges may apply, and the information is
therefore covered by Section 21 of the Freedom of Information Act. This is
an absolute exemption, meaning that no further consideration of the public
interest in the information is needed. However, the Panel did recognise
that in some circumstances, depending on the extent of the information
requested and the nature of the product required to provide it, information
might not be considered ‘reasonably accessible’ under the terms of FOI
where there is a fee applicable.

Though you have only requested information relating to one area, releasing
the information piece by piece, or area by area, would allow details of all
postal addresses and postcodes to be built up and reused without control.
The Panel concluded therefore, that in the event that Section 21 may not
apply then the information would be exempt from disclosure under section 43
of the Freedom of Information Act – Prejudice to Commercial Interests.
This is because, as stated above, the information has a clear commercial
value and is marketed by Royal Mail through the Address Management Unit and
other resellers. Publishing the information without restraint via the
Freedom of Information Act would clearly devalue the products marketed by
Royal Mail and prejudice the commercial interests of Royal Mail and others
who use the information as part of their commercial services.

This exemption is subject to the Public Interest Test. We believe that
there is public interest in allowing normal market forces to operate in
this environment and in protecting the commercial interests of Royal Mail
and others. On the other hand, the information is already made available
via other means and disclosing the information via FOI does not in any way
inform the public or contribute to public interest in openness or
transparency. Therefore we believe that in all circumstances of the case
the public interest is best met by applying the exemption, and that the
information should not be disclosed.

I hope that this suitable explains why we are unable to disclose the
information you requested under the Freedom of Information Act, but please
contact me directly if you would like any clarification or if there is
anything further I can do to help, or if you would like any assistance in
contacting the Address Management Unit.

In the event that you are not satisfied with this review, you do of course
also 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

Yours sincerely

Martin Rush
Head of Information Compliance

Royal Mail is a trading name of Royal Mail Group Ltd. Registered in England
and Wales.
Registered number 4138203. Registered office at 148 Old Street, LONDON EC1V
9HQ

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