Direct Marketing Association helps to improve DM targeting

28 February 2008

Since 1991, the DMA has lobbied for access to death registration data for list cleaning purposes. New legislation will enable the data to be used to clean lists in the battle against fraud and identity theft and such list cleaning will ensure better compliance with the CAP Code.

Clause 43.2 of the CAP Code states:   “Marketers should take all necessary steps to ensure that anyone who has been notified as dead is not mailed again and the notifier is referred to the relevant Preference Service.”

The Supply of Information (Register of Deaths) Regulations 2007, which came into force on 1 January 2008, and similar separate regulations applying to Scotland and Northern Ireland specify to whom the Registrars General may disclose information on registered deaths for the purposes of prevention, detection or prosecution of offences and require any person or body undertaking list cleaning to remove the entries of persons who are deceased on those lists.

Angela Traynor, legal coordinator, DMA, said: “This major breakthrough in accessing death registration data will be very important to our members, particularly those in the financial sector.
 
“In our response to the Registrars General consultation, we made a very strong case for death registration data being used for list cleaning purposes as a means to prevent fraud in terms of removing deceased names from acquisition mailing lists and checking for identity fraud. We are therefore particularly gratified to see that the Regulations specify list cleaning as a permitted use for the removal of names of the deceased from lists, defined for the purposes of fraud prevention.”

The process to apply for access to the data will be launched by the three Registrars General later this month.  Applications for the death registration data will be subject to rigorous risk assessment checks that are likely to include face-to-face interviews with the applicant and could include security audits or other investigations. The Licence Agreement and compliance arrangements are likely to prove to be equally stringent and will be legally binding. Those with an interest in mailing lists should consult the Registrar General’s website www.gro.gov.uk.