Do you need consent to send bulk mail in the UK?

Email marketing comes with strict opt-in rules, so it’s easy to assume your printed mailings need the same consent. Usually they don’t, as long as you can rely on legitimate interests. However, you must still tell people how you use their data, honour every opt-out and screen your list before it goes in the post.

Consent or legitimate interests: which applies to post?

Email, text and phone marketing fall under the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations (PECR). PECR doesn’t cover addressed post, so the strict consent rules for email don’t apply to your mailings. However, the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) does.

The Information Commissioner’s Office’s direct marketing guidance lists both legitimate interests and consent as valid lawful bases for postal marketing. Most organisations use legitimate interests.

To rely on it, complete a legitimate interests assessment. This is a documented balancing test. It shows your reason for mailing people outweighs any impact on their privacy and that they would reasonably expect to hear from you.

Consent is still the right basis in some cases. If you promised people you would only contact them with their consent, you must keep that promise. Whichever basis you use, your privacy notice should explain your mailings and how people can use their right to object.

What screening does a mailing list need?

Whether you screen against the Mailing Preference Service (MPS), which only applies to residential mailings and excludes businesses based at residential addresses, depends on the type of mail you send. Here are some examples:

Mail type	MPS screening expected?	Notes
Advertising Mail	Yes	Although not legally required, it’s considered best practice to screen data against MPS. It also makes commercial sense to avoid sending mail to uninterested parties to save money and avoid negative brand association.
Business Mail (statements, service letters)	No	MPS doesn’t apply to business mail, but it’s best to screen against internal suppression lists before sending.
Publishing or Subscription Mail (member magazines)	No	MPS doesn’t apply, but senders should screen against internal suppression lists.
Letters, cards and personal correspondence	No	MPS doesn’t apply to personal correspondence

Some hygiene steps apply to every list, whatever the bulk mail type:

Remove anyone on your own suppression file who has opted out or objected.
Remove records of deceased contacts. The Bereavement Register records upwards of 580,000 deaths a year.
Remove gone-aways: people who no longer live or work at the address.
Remove duplicates.

Charities should also check the Fundraising Preference Service. It lets people stop contact from a named charity.

What about bought-in or rented data?

Third-party data carries more risk, because you didn’t collect it yourself. Check it before you use it:

Only use reputable, professionally certified data resellers and never source from unsolicited email sources.
Check how people were told their details would be shared and whether that covers your kind of mailing.
Keep a record of the source.
Screen the list against MPS and your own suppression file before every mailing.

You also need to tell people in your first mailing where you got their details.

What your mailing house should do with your data

Your mailing house processes personal data on your behalf, so ask how it keeps that data safe. Here’s how we handle client data at The Mailing People:

ISO 27001 certification for information security management.
A secure file upload portal (SFTP) for transferring personal data.
All servers storing personal data are located in the UK.
Staff trained in their data protection responsibilities.
For GDPR compliance, mailing data is archived after three months. Data is used only for the intended purpose and deleted after a year or as directed by the customer.

Common mistakes

Here are some common bulk mailing mistakes:

Mailing people who have objected or opted out: An objection to direct marketing is absolute. Suppress those records for good, not just for one campaign.
Assuming MPS screening covers everything: MPS won’t catch your own opt-outs, gone-aways or duplicates.
Using a list with no record of where it came from: If you can’t say who collected the data, when and what people were told it would be used for, you can’t show it was collected fairly.

Get your list ready to mail

Not sure your data is ready? Ask us for a free data audit. We’ll report duplicates, gone-aways and other issues, plus the cost of removing them. Cleansing is a separate, chargeable step and you decide what to fix.

Find out more about mailing in bulk.

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