We have opted out of all 3 junk mail opt-out schemes and have a no junk mail sign on the door. Two political parties have put stuff through our door and when confronted, the candidates have claimed that they are exempt for the service or junk mail signs due to national importance. Could you please confirm if this is the case and if so, is there any way to make them stop putting election flyers through the door?
The claim that political leaflets have national importance
is nonsense. If you want to embarrass the candidates you confronted, get back to them and ask exactly what legislation they're referring to.
That said, stopping political leaflets is complicated. The two opt-out schemes for unaddressed junk mail may be able to stop political leaflets; 'No Junk Mail' sign probably won't. However, if the candidates represented Labour, the Lib Dems or Conservatives they have breached the Direct Marketing Association's Code of Practice. The three main parties are all members of the Direct Marketing Association, and its code reluctantly tells members to respect people's wishes when it comes to unaddressed junk mail.
Door-to-Door Opt-Out
As for the two opt-out schemes for unaddressed junk mail, Royal Mail's has a legal duty to distribute so-called election communications from political parties. During a general election campaign candidates can get a free door-drop in their chosen constituency, and most candidates take up the offer. Any other political leaflets distributed by Royal Mail are not exempt and should be prevented by the opt-out scheme.
Your Choice Preference Scheme
The Your Choice Preference Scheme for Unaddressed Mail stops all political leaflets distributed by companies that are a member of the Direct Marketing Association (DMA). Straightforward as that may be, the Your Choice scheme is hopelessly complicated in other ways. One of the problems with Your Choice is that you usually have no way of knowing whether or not a particular leaflet was distributed by a member of the DMA.
'No Junk Mail' signs
'No Junk Mail' signs usually don't stop political leaflets. Although there's no agreed definition of 'junk mail' it's more or less accepted that the term refers to unaddressed, unsolicited and commercial advertisements. In other words, a 'No Junk Mail' sign should stop commercial items such as take-away menus and calling cards from local businesses – but not non-commercial items such as a leaflet from the local Council about bin collections or a leaflet from a neighbour about a missing cat. Political leaflets are a bit of grey area. Usually, they're classified as being non-commercial.
Contacting the sender
That leaves the option of contacting the sender directly. As said, the three main parties are all members of the Direct Marketing Association and have to abide by its Code of Practice. The Code doesn't have much to say on the subject of unaddressed junk mail and as per usual the Direct Marketing Association uses language that's vague and ambiguous. Here's what the Code has to say:
Members must have in place a structure to enable every effort to be made to respect a householder's wish not to receive unaddressed items, whether such requests are made directly to the member or via any industry schemes approved by the Association. (13.23 - Requests not to receive unaddressed items).
The question is whether or not you made a request directly to the member
when you confronted the candidates. The Direct Marketing Association will no doubt say this isn't the case; they want people to write to any individual members they don't want to receive junk mail from. I'd say you did make a direct request; the candidates represent their parties and you spoke with them face-to-face. Only punching them on the nose would be more direct! If the candidates represented Labour, the Lib Dems or the Tories it's worth making a complaint to the Direct Marketing Commission.
Be aware that this all part of industry self-regulation; your complaint would be dealt with by a body with rather close links to a junk mail lobby group. And the DMA's code of practice is rather ambiguous about people's right not to receive unaddressed mail items; members of the Direct Marketing Association only need to ensure they have in place a structure to enable every effort to be made to respect a householder's wish not to receive unaddressed items
. It can't get more laissez-faire than that!
Conclusion
Although the candidates talked rubbish when they told you political leaflets have national importance
I suspect the Direct Marketing Commission would tell you to write to those political parties that are members of the Direct Marketing Association. You can do so via their websites:
It's worth noting that if the leaflets are delivered by a political party that's not a member of the Direct Marketing Association you're buggered. The industry's self-regulation only applies to members of the DMA. You can still contact other political parties, and you might find they're decent people and respect your request. However, if they don't there's nothing you can do.