Industry braced for mail exposé

The direct marketing industry is bracing itself for a new onslaught on the back of a BBC Panorama programme airing tonight, which investigates whether Royal Mail could survive without direct mail, and, more controversially, scam mail.
Royal Mail has already launched a pre-emptive strike against the programme, which, it is understood, claims the postal operator has not done enough to tackle scam mail.
The DMA has also briefed its membership on the forthcoming show, providing them with factsheets about the key issues, such as the industry’s environmental record, which it believes may be covered.
“Why hate junk mail” will be broadcast at 8:30pm tonight (July 4) on BBC1. According to the programme blurb: “It invades our homes, dropping onto our doormats in its millions and costs the taxpayer a fortune to get rid of. It might be a menace in our mailbox but without junk mail, would our postal service survive? Panorama reporter Tom Heap asks whether junk mail is only good for one thing, burning it to heat his home, and investigates whether Royal Mail is addicted to the darker side of the letters business – scam mail.”
It has long been recognised that business customers fund the Universal Service and that direct mail – as well as associated areas such as data provision and cleansing – is one of the few parts of the organisation that brings in revenue and has been pinpointed for future growth.
Chief executive Moya Greene confirmed as much when she recently said: “We have to develop new products and services to meet the needs of our customers and generate additional revenues to offset the decline in earnings from our letters business.”
In a formal statement, Royal Mail said it is had made significant progress in its efforts to root out scam mail although it did not recognise the term “junk mail”, pointing out that direct mail accounts for more than £16bn in sales for the UK economy every year and the industry employs 280,000 people directly and indirectly.
It said: “We very much understand the upset and disquiet that scam mail can cause households across the country, including vulnerable people. We do not want our postmen or women handling or delivering mail that causes harm. We have made significant progress in our efforts to root out scam mail as we intensify our drive against it.
“As was announced in January 2011, Royal Mail is working very closely, through Operation Sterling, with the Metropolitan Police and Serious Organised Crime Agency to identify and stop scam mail at source.
“We can reveal for the first time that our work with the Metropolitan Police has resulted in almost 6 million scam letters being removed from the UK mail delivery network. As a result of our close co-operation, the police provided us with the information which enabled us to cancel six bulk mail contracts with foreign companies based in Austria, Australia, Canada and South Africa. In one case, mail has been seized by the police as part of a criminal investigation.
“We are currently working with the Metropolitan Police on leads involving a further 10 million potential scam letters. If this turns out to be scam mail harmful to the recipients, we will stop it, irrespective of the cost and loss of revenue to Royal Mail.
“This significant action is in addition to 11 bulk mail contracts that we have cancelled after we acted on complaints received by the Advertising Standards Agency about the content of mailings. Royal Mail has also signed an information sharing protocol with the Office of Fair Trading which has resulted in three bulk mail contracts being cancelled.”
Campaigners, including a group called Think Jessica, say Royal Mail does not do enough to stamp out an industry worth an estimated £2bn a year, where householders are duped into believing they will receive lottery wins or other cash prizes.