Ltb 522/2013 (DWP) - MAIL OPENING & SCANNING

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Letter to Branches




No. 522/2013
Ref: 045
Date: 29th July 2013



To All: Postal Branches
Area Processing Representatives
Area Distribution Representatives
Divisional Representatives





Dear Colleague

DEPARTMENT OF WORK & PENSIONS (DWP) - MAIL OPENING & SCANNING

Further to LTB506 circulated to Branches/Representatives on the 19th July 2013 regarding the above. I can report that a meeting has been held with the business to discuss the impact of the announcement made on Friday 19th July 2013 regarding the loss of the Department of Work and Pensions (DWP) contract.

Along with the assurances already published in respect of TUPE and the option of everyone employed on DWP work being able to remain in Royal Mail should they wish, we are also able to confirm that the terms of the MTSF agreement will also apply to individuals who are affected by this announcement.

In addition the Union requested further information relating to the status of the DWP contract, Royal Mails relationship with Balfour Beatty Workplace (BBW) and an insight to their planning assumptions for disengagement from the contract and what part, if any, of the work currently performed will be retained my Royal Mail.

A response has now been received which is bullet pointed below, however it should be noted that this is a summary of the circumstances and events that have contributed to the loss of this work as well as the initial planning assumptions/activity that will be required to provide operational arrangements for the revised DWP model being introduced by BBW.


Royal Mail provides Opening and Scanning Services to the DWP as a sub-contractor to Balfour Beatty Workplace (BBW). 

Balfour Beatty Workplace hold the contract for Office Services with the DWP.  This covers a range of services including Facilities Management Services such as Reception and Messengerial Services and also Office Services such as Telephony, Typing and of course the Mail Opening and Scanning which is subcontracted to Royal Mail.

The contract is for 7 years with the option for a 3 year extension with the first seven year Term  due to finish in Feb 2014

Under pressure from the DWP for a two site model to enable the migration to digital rather than physical delivery, and for internal commercial reasons within BBW to increase their margin, BBW have elected to take this work in house and provide the services from two sites located in Kidderminster and Telford.

There was no tender for this work and as lead contractor BBW and DWP had rights to be able to do this.

We have tried to influence the DWP to stay with us at the very highest level, sadly to no avail.

The work will migrate from the end of September onwards with an expectation that 3 of the 29 MOU’s will close per week in a 9 or 10 week migration plan.  The precise detail is still to be agreed with the DWP and BBW and Royal Mail will share this with the Union once it has been finalised.

One silver lining is that a substantial new contract worth between £3m-£5m will be required by the DWP to get the mail securely from the legacy MOU’s and DO’s to the two new sites and to present it to the BBW offices pre-sorted by individual DWP office (Jobcentres etc.) of which there are about 540. 

This will involve a small number of hours remaining in the MOU locations to pre-sort mail and Revenue Protect the Response Service Mail and a new substantial Pre-sorted delivery service operating out of Wolverhampton Mail centre to provide a circa 270 way sort to each of the two new BBW units.

It is not yet possible to say how many jobs this will generate as we are yet to do the planning.  Locally within MOU’s it will range from a perhaps twenty minutes to a duty or possibly even more in the larger units.  At Wolverhampton it will depend on the degree of manual work received and this is not yet understood.

The final detail of this plan including staff implications are still subject to further analysis, however as previously advised in LTB 506/13 a list of the affect units including the number of duties currently affected is also published below as an attachment to this LTB.

Any enquiries in relation to this LTB should be addressed to Terry Pullinger, Assistant Secretary, email: dwyatt@cwu.org or lwright@cwu.org quoting reference number:045

Yours sincerely

Terry Pullinger
Assistant Secretary