Freedom of information

Royal Mail has processes in place to give the public access to information about our business and its activities.

Every year, we receive hundreds of Freedom of Information requests about diverse aspects of our business.  These are over and above the requests for information that we answer routinely (e.g. customer emails answered by customer services). The requests come from a wide variety of individuals and organisations: businesses, individual personal customers, journalists, civil servants and elected representatives.

We have a dedicated team working on requests, ensuring that we respond as fully as possible. Enquiries should be answered within 20 working days, and in many cases we will answer requests free of charge, meaning that individual or disadvantaged customers are not excluded from the right to access information.

There are, of course, times when we may not be able to make certain information available. For example, as a commercial operation, we must decline some requests for facts as answers could compromise competitiveness, and we would never give out information in breach of the Data Protection Act.

We published very detailed company information in our Annual Report & Accounts [link], and provide further disclosure through the many communications we issue to colleagues, customers and the media every year.

If you do want more information about the Freedom of Information Act, you can email foi@royalmail.com