13th July 2015

The reason for writing to Defra via my local MP was that Defra seemed too embarrassed to talk about the Door Drop Preference Service – the super-duper opt-out scheme for unaddressed junk mail the department announced in November 2011.

After a long Freedom of Information fight the department released some information about the opt-out scheme (which was never launched) in June 2015, with the emphasis on some – see They work for us on my blog for an overview of the information I received. I've since challenged the information I received by asking Defra for an internal review (to which the department failed to respond) and I've escalated the issue to the Information Commissioner's Office. I'm expecting it will take at least a year for the Information Commissioner to make a decision, and so I reckoned it was a good idea to in the meantime get some more information about the opt-out scheme and the responsibility deal by writing to my local MP.