Profiteering from people on state benefit.

Dear Mr Pritchard

Thank you for your request for information received on 07/09/2009, which
we are considering under the Freedom of Information Act. Under the Act
you should expect a reply from us to be sent by 05/10/2009, 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

Andrew Moore
[1][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 100 Victoria Embankment,
LONDON, EC4Y 0HQ

References

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1. mailto:[Royal Mail Group request email]

Dear Mr Pritchard,

Further to my acknowledgement of your Freedom of Information request,
please be advised that I incorrectly acknowledged the date of receipt of
your request and have amended this to the 4 September with a reply expected
from us by the 2 October 2009.

Please accept my apologies.

Yours sincerely

Andrew Moore
[Royal Mail Group request email]
Freedom of Information Unit
PO Box 2060, Watford, WD18 8ZW

Royal Mail is a trading name of Royal Mail Group Ltd. Registered in England
and Wales.
Registered number 4138203. Registered office at 100 Victoria Embankment,
LONDON, EC4Y 0HQ

---------------------- Forwarded by Andrew J Moore/e/POSTOFFICE on
08/09/2009 11:07:07

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Dear Mr Pritchard,

Thank you for your e-mail of the 3 October 2009 in relation to your request
for information relating to the Post Office® card account.

Firstly, please accept my apologies that we were unable to respond to your
request by the due date of the 2 October 2009. I can confirm we do hold
information falling within the terms of your request; however we need more
time to consider the balance of the public interest in relation to the
request.

By virtue of section 10 (3), where public authorities have to consider the
balance of the public interest in relation to a request, they do not have
to comply with the request until such time as is reasonable in the
circumstances.

Due to the time needed to consider, in all the circumstances of the case,
where the balance of the public interest lies in relation to the
information that you have requested, we will aim to respond to your request
by 16 October 2009.

Again, please accept my apologies for the delay in the response to your
request, and we will aim to respond to you as promptly as possible. If you
are still dissatisfied with the handling of your request, you have the
right to ask for an internal review, the details of which will be included
within my response to your original request.

Please remember to quote the reference number above in any future
communications.

If you are not content with the outcome of the internal review, you have
the right to apply directly to the Information Commissioner for a decision.
The Information Commissioner can be contacted at: Information
Commissioner’s Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire, SK9
5AF.

Yours sincerely

Peter Johnson,
Freedom of Information Advisor
Post Office Ltd
PO Box 2060
Watford Mail Centre
Watford
WD18 8ZW
01923 215110
[Royal Mail Group request email]

"Alvin Pritchard."
<request-17655-97b7e717@whatdoth To: [Royal Mail Group request email]
eyknow.com> cc:
Sent by: "Alvin Pritchard." Subject: Internal review of Freedom of Information request - Profiteering from people
<request-17655-97b7e717@whatdoth on state benefit.
eyknow.com>

03/10/2009 11:51

Dear Sir or Madam, You have failed to answer my question by the
prescribed time as required by law. I am therefor requesting an
internal review on the subject matter.

Yours faithfully,

Alvin Pritchard.

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Dear Mr Pritchard,

Our ref: AJME-7VNCLL

I am writing in response to your email received by Post Office Limited on
04 September 2009 in relation to the Post Office Card Account, which I am
dealing with under the terms of the Freedom of Information Act 2000. (the
Act) I would like to thank you for your patience whilst we extended the
response time while considering the balance of public interest in relation
to your request.

In your email you requested the following information;

Does The Post Office make a profit from people on social security
benefit, by collecting the huge amount of interest paid via the post
office "card account" when people leave their money in that
account? as no interest is paid to the customer with this type of
account).

If this is indeed the case, how much profit was made in interest
payments to The Post Office over the last five years?

In response to the first part of your request I can advise you that Post
Office Limited does receive a level of commission based on interest earned
on funds held within the Post Office Card Account; commission was paid
between 2004 and 2008, however I would advise you that no commission has
been paid in 2009 to date.

I would like to reassure you that any commission awarded to Post Office
Limited from interest earned on the Post Office Card Account is used to
support the costs of providing the Post Office Card Account service and
operating our network.

In response to the second part of request in respect of how much interest
Post Office Limited received, I can advise you that we do hold information
relevant to your request. However the commercial interests of Post Office
Limited and its Subpostmasters would be prejudiced if details of the
commission payments to Post Office Limited in respect of the Post Office
Card Account were disclosed.

Details of commission payments to Post Office Limited in respect of the
Post Office Card Account were included in our recent commercial tender to
the UK Government and informed our pricing position. As such if this
information was disclosed it would inform any competitors, tendering for
any future commercial contract for the Post Office Card Account, of our
pricing position and would thus allow a competitor an unfair competitive
advantage in their tender. Any unfair advantage could lead to Post Office
Limited not being awarded a future contract. If Post Office Limited was
unsuccessful in a future tendering process this would affect its financial
position. In addition the commercial interests of the Subpostmaster would
be prejudiced by the resultant reduction in their income, and a
Subpostmaster could therefore find the value of their business severely
reduced. This would affect Post Office Limited's ability to resource the
Post Office® network and recruit new Subpostmasters.

In this respect Post Office Limited believes an exemption is provided in
Section.43 (2) of the Act, concerning likely prejudice to commercial
interests. As information has been exempted under Section.43 (2) of the
Freedom of Information Act, a public interest test applies and Post Office
Limited believes the balance of public interest is, in all circumstances of
the case, in favour of withholding the information.

I hope the information detailed above is of use; however I am sorry that I
cannot provide you with all of the information you have requested this
time. If you are dissatisfied with this response for any reason you do have
a right to request an internal review, in which case please write 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 request, 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
Telephone: 01625 545 700
www.informationcommissioner.gov.uk

Yours sincerely

Peter Johnson,
Freedom of Information Advisor
Post Office Ltd
PO Box 2060
Watford Mail Centre
Watford
WD18 8ZW
T 01923 215110

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