Agenda item

To consider a briefing note regarding the Corporate Postal Services Review.

The Chair stated that UK Mail had been requested as an item for the work plan at the last meeting.  The Head of Customer and ICT Services stated that in February, Cabinet had approved the appointment of UK Mail, subject to the satisfactory outcome of a pilot exercise of six months duration.   There had been a few issues at the start of the pilot but most of these issues had been resolved within the pilot period or were being addressed through changes and updates in working methods by the provider and the authority.  UK Mail completed the sorting but the final delivery was completed by Royal Mail.  The Business Improvement Manager stated that Royal Mail did not enter a bid for the contract, due to the projected volume not being large enough. 

A Member commented on the data incorporated in the report stipulating that an average could be misleading and that it was the spread of data which was important.  There had been some cases when mail had taken too long to arrive, this was of a particular concern for time critical post. Some Members were in agreement that there had been cases when time sensitive post had taken too long to arrive.   The Head of Customer and ICT Services stated that the final part of the delivery was completed by Royal Mail, which meant that the delay was not always caused by UK Mail.  The Council had worked with UK Mail when they were aware of delivery being delayed.  When the Council had looked into the delayed delivery the hold up had often been the fault of Royal Mail rather than UK Mail. 

Members asked what the procedure would be if UK mail were not accepted as the contractor after the pilot had been completed. In response, the Business Improvement Manager stated that they could go to the second provider – Secured Mail.  The other alternative would be to go back out to the market place through an open tender process or through the GPS (Government Procurement Service) framework.  There were however departments within the Council which had seen an improvement in service since the switch to UK Mail, with the feedback being generally good across the Council and a reduction in problems as the pilot had proceeded.  The Executive Director for Resources and Support Services stated that before UK Mail were awarded the contract, the Council had quite a number of issues with Royal Mail.

A Member asked if there was an opportunity to join up with the other public sector partners that worked at the Council, such as the Police and Social Services.  In response the Head of Customer Services and ICT stated that the Council went into the Procurement process as a partnership with other local Councils but this still did not attract Royal Mail.  She confirmed that the contract with UK Mail was for two years after the initial pilot. The Business Improvement Manager stated that when the contract ended there was an intention to have a formal collaboration with other authorities to obtain the best deal. 

The Chair stated that the Scrutiny Committee could look at the Council’s mail arrangements when the contract came up again for renewal.