Royal Mail has welcomed Channel Four’s acknowledgement that a key part of April’s Dispatches film concerning the alleged theft of a Barclaycard was inaccurate, and that the mock-up of a postal worker stealing money from a birthday card in a newspaper advertisement for the program was not backed up by any similar acts filmed by undercover reporters.
Chief executive Adam Crozier said: “Royal Mail and its people face more scrutiny in the media than most organisations. That’s fair enough – but from time to time when a real inaccuracy is portrayed, we need to intervene to ensure that our side is put across in a fair and balanced way.”
Channel Four’s statement makes it clear that footage showing credit cards being stolen from Royal Mail’s operation was set-up, and the cards had, in fact, never been handled by Royal Mail.
“Our people were frankly outraged at the promotion of this film with posed shots of an actor pretending to be a postman stealing from the mail,” said Crozier. “Channel Four now acknowledges that not only was the image a mock-up, but that in six months of undercover investigations at a number of our sites nothing of this kind was filmed.
He added that the integrity of the postal system is of paramount importance to all Royal Mail customers. “No organisation is immune from criminal activity – but it must be put into the proper context. The facts should stand for themselves. Only 0.005% of letters are affected by theft - and 90% of incidents of theft are when postmen and women are the victims, not the perpetrators, of crime. Channel Four’s film and its promotion did not, in our opinion, sufficiently acknowledge these facts.”
Despite a strong record on security, Royal Mail is constantly looking to improve things further, and has now gained the right to vet new recruits for criminal records. “This is an important step in making the postal service even more secure, which the company had secured before the Dispatches film, but which had not at that stage been made public,” said Crozier.
Channel Four’s undercover filming took place at a time of massive change in the postal service. The number of temporary employees within the company was higher than normal. It has now been reduced from a high of 22,000 people to around 4,000.
Crozier emphasised that Royal Mail’s services have improved since the period during which filming was undertaken. “We went through an unofficial strike. We have been through massive changes to put the company back on a stable footing, and to put our people on a better wage and a five-day week. These things caused temporary dips in service quality. But since this film was broadcast we have made real and lasting improvements, month after month, in our quality of service. Where we could learn from this film we have made improvements. But where the film was inaccurate we have set the record straight.”
