Today, Defra announced the details of the third 'voluntary producer responsibility deal' between the department and the junk mail industry (united in the Direct Marketing Association). It sure is an interesting package.

The main changes concern the two existing opt-out schemes for unaddressed junk mail, the Door-to-Door Opt-Out and the Your Choice Dummy Scheme. These schemes will be merged into one, which makes sense (and is one of the many things I've long campaigned for). Even better is that from April next year you'll finally be able to register with the new opt-out scheme for unaddressed junk mail via the website of the Mailing Preference Service (another thing I had suggested to Defra).

The opt-out schemes will remain only half-effective. Nothing is going to be done about unaddressed junk delivered by local businesses and the Mailing Preference Service will still cover only a small portion of all addressed junk mail.

Defra has also demanded that the industry starts advertising its own opt-out services. By 2014 at least 30% of people should be aware of the existence of the new opt-out scheme. Also interesting is this; members of the Direct Marketing Association will need to start including information on its mail-outs about how recipients can unsubscribe from future advertisements. Not that long ago the Direct Marketing Association rejected this idea in no uncertain terms.

Bad news is that the Mailing Preference Service will become an American-style opt-in / opt-out scheme. It's not mentioned in the agreement but it's clear if you listen carefully to what the environment secretary told Radio 5 this morning. At the moment you can simple go to Consumer Focus's Stay Private website and register with the Mailing Preference Service. From April, however, you'll need to create an account with the Mailing Preference Service and you'll then be encouraged to opt in to receiving specific types of junk mail. For instance, you can indicate that you're not interested in insurance 'offers' but that you do like to receive junk mail from credit card companies. In other words, the Direct Marketing Association is hoping to sell your personal details to anonymous list brokers who can then sell your personal details to other companies. I very much doubt people go to the Mailing Preference Service with that intention, and no doubt there'll be plenty people who'll see an increase in junk mail as a result of signing up.

In short, there are some good points in the new agreement but it's still very much a compromise between Defra and the junk mail lobby. It's also a deal that may have some unintended consequences. More about that later.