Memorandum submitted by The REaD Group
plc
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
— Direct mailing is an established
way for government departments to communicate with and inform
citizens. The carbon footprint of direct and mass mailings can
be significant, placing a premium on sending mailings to the right
individual at the correct address. However, at the moment the
use of "data suppression" techniques to manage institutional
mailing databases is limited across government departments, leading
to misdirected and misaddressed mail.
— Data suppression is the practice
of removing out-of-date or incorrect information from the large
databases which constitute the majority of direct marketing mailing
lists. Many of the information databases held by organisations
have been developed over long periods of time and can quickly
get out-of-date. As a result, databases often contain the names
and details of individuals who no longer live at the listed address
or who have died. The result is that a huge proportion of mail
sent out will be addressed incorrectly, producing large amounts
of unnecessary waste, blocking the postal system and causing considerable
annoyance to individuals dealing with superfluous mailings.
— By using up-to-date and accurate
information for mailings through the use of the latest data suppression
techniques, as opposed to out-of-date lists which include people
who no longer live at the address or who are deceased, departments
will improve their environmental performance by reducing waste
production as well as their efficiency. We urge the Environment
Audit Committee to examine ways in which better database management
could be used to minimise waste in this important area.
EVIDENCE
1. The REaD Group plc welcomes this opportunity
to submit evidence to the House of Commons Environment Audit Committee
inquiry into making government more sustainable. Founded in 1991,
The REaD Group plc has pioneered a new, more efficient approach
to direct marketing in the development of data suppression which
improves the effectiveness of direct marketing practices.
2. In response to question 14 ("What
is the key to the progress shown by Departments and Agencies in
reducing waste and increasing recycling? Are there any wider lessons
which could improve performance in other areas?") we raise
the issue of the producer responsibility reducing waste resulting
from misdirected direct marketing to households and businesses
by government departments. Although a small part of the overall
environmental footprint of government departments, given the potentially
large volumes of mail involved we argue that a "quick win"
for government departments and their procurement processes is
the adoption of better data management techniques for their existing
mailing databases.
3. The REaD Group plc provides an extensive
range of business-to-consumer and business-to- business data suppression
products. It is instrumental in helping direct marketers clean-up
their mailing lists by removing inaccurate or unwanted names and
addresses. This has benefits in improving the efficiency of direct
mailing, reducing waste and the potential for identity fraud.
Today, more than half of all direct mail sent out in the UK is
cleaned by one or more of The REaD Group's suppression products.
4. From our extensive experience in the
private sector, we believe that better management of information
and databases by public bodies could significantly reduce the
amount of paper waste created by government communications and
direct marketing. Although it is difficult to capture the precise
volumes of direct mail sent out by the government, our initial
inquiries suggest that they are very substantial. There are also
benefits in terms of improving efficiency and value for money.
5. The REaD Group plc's evidence highlights
the role that "data suppression" techniques could play
in meeting this important objective. We believe that better data
asset management forms part of modern public sector producer responsibility
in helping organisations reduce their initial waste arisings,
as well as making them more efficient.
6. Volumes of direct mail have grown dramatically
over the last two decades. As the Waste Strategy 2007 notes, in
2005 3.4 billion items of addressed direct mail and 13 billion
items of unaddressed direct mail were sent out to UK households
and businesses. Since 2003 volumes of unaddressed mail appear
to be increasing at a rate of 1-2% a year in the UK. Today direct
mail is estimated to account for approximately 550,000 tonnes
of the household waste stream, which is around 4.4% of the UK's
annual consumption of paper and board. In 2003 only about 13%
of direct mail was recycled. Public sector usage is likely to
follow this trend.
7. Inaccurate and out-of-date databases
do not only cause environmental waste. Misdirected direct mail
can also be sent to deceased individuals, sometimes over 10 years
after their death, causing emotional distress to bereaved families.
It can lead to instances of Impersonation of the Deceased (IOD)
fraud. For example, if a criminal obtains a credit card application
sent to an individual who has died this means the deceased's identity
can be stolen. The Bereavement Register was established
by The REaD Group to eliminate instances of direct marketing being
sent to deceased individuals. In this way, we have helped not
only to stop these wasteful mailings but also tackle identity
fraud and stop the emotional distress being caused to the family
members of the deceased.
8. To give a flavour of the potential "quick
wins" for waste minimisation, we illustrate evidence gleaned
from a parliamentary question on the volumes of mail involved
in the Department of Work and Pensions over a five year period.
| Volume | 2002
| 2003 | 2004 |
2005 | 2006 |
| Pension Credit | 3,053,168 |
9,601,349 | 16,826,461 | 14,595,985
| 11,694,195 |
| Income support | 40,579,060 |
36,211,335 | 25,970,123 | 21,882,796
| 21,575,397 |
| Jobseeker's allowance | 36,731,443
| 33,285,018 | 26,238,083 |
19,584,809 | 19,806,068 |
| Incapacity benefit | 15,082,958
| 12,306,938 | 11,357,700 |
9,214,905 | 9,860,895 |
| State pension | 26,305,633 |
25,399,385 | 24,973,194 | 19,251,923
| 26,755,872 |
Source: Written Question from Frank Cook MP to James Paskitt
MP 2 May 2007 [132016].
This information illustrates around 90 million items of post
were sent by DWP in 2006.
9. The Department states that it received over 18.5 million
"notifications" of change of address. This approach
is not the same as regular suppression of incorrect data. The
percentage of a database that matches is called a match rate.
Whilst we would expect the DWP to have lower than average match
rates on account of notifications by individuals, from our experience
with the direct marketing industry and public bodies with similar
functions such as the Television Licensing Agency, the average
"match rate" for a database for individuals who have
moved address is 3.8%, with deaths ranging between 0.5% and 1.5%
per annum. Using the total mailing from the DWP in 2006, we estimate
the potential inaccuracies for this cohort to range from 3,400,000
to 4,750,000. Taking our conservative estimate of 3.4 million
records, the impact on waste production we estimate to be up to
255 tonnes of mail (approximately 88.6 tonnes of carbon per year)
which could be saved in paper production alone from this one department.
10. Although from March 2008 dates of death will be notified
to the Department on a daily basis, which should ensure the level
of notifications sent to deceased individuals by the Department
is minimized, the issue of accurately and systematically capturing
those changing address is still outstanding.
11. The REaD Group plc welcomes the Sustainable Development
in Government Annual Report 2007. However we note that some government
departments have a way to travel in terms of waste data collection
and management. We also agree with the recommendation that the
SPOB should "consider introducing more ambitious future
waste minimisation and recycling targets to ensure departments
continue to challenge themselves and create opportunities for
improvement." One element we would like to see a more
robust assessment on is the producer responsibility of "non-production"
in government departments to bear down on unnecessary waste arisings.
RECOMMENDATIONS
12. Data cleaning and suppression of databases should
be seen as good practice across the public sector, but at the
moment these simple techniques are not used to great effect despite
the clear benefits of improving the efficiency and customer service
of public bodies involved in direct communication, consultation
or correspondence with private individuals. Lacking some of the
commercial drivers that private sector organisations have can
inhibit public sector bodies from realising some of the more immediate
gains, which also can be felt in terms of waste prevention.
— the Environmental Audit Committee consider the
"quick win" of encouraging better database management
and data suppression in government departments;
— the new Government Strategic Marketing Advisory
Board (GSMAB), formally launched in February 2008, should investigate
how central government can use data suppression techniques to
increase public sector productivity and reduce waste.
21 April 2008
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