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'Re-opening the Post' is a follow-up to the original 'Dispatches' programme 'Third Class Post' shown in April 2004, which alleged that Royal Mail workers were stealing mail.

The latest programme claims that Royal Mail is still employing people with criminal records, despite the company saying after last year's programme that it would vet all employees.

Channel 4 has not released preview tapes but has revealed that the programme includes an interview with an ex-offender who got a job after the vetting procedure was introduced. He says he was convicted for stealing money from birthday cards.

The undercover reporters worked in depots in London, Liverpool, Exeter and Peterborough. The programme also shows a worker still wearing a tag because he had recently been released from jail. It also focuses on instances where depot workers fail to take precautions to secure mail stored overnight.

A Royal Mail spokesman said that the company could not comment on the documentary because it had not been shown the film, and had not contributed to it.

He said that the company vets all workers, including temporary workers, who now number fewer than 1,000, compared with a peak of 20,000 last year.

He added that the two undercover reporters involved in the latest programme had both been checked for criminal convictions, while last year 99.93% of the 22bn items sent through the post arrived safely.

A Postwatch spokeswoman said that Postwatch had not seen the tape but after a discussion with the programme makers understood that the programme shows agency staff walking into a delivery office and being told to sort out a delivery round and then go out alone, without the aid of a map, to find the adddresses to deliver to.

"Tonight's programme is bound to lead to renewed vigour by Royal Mail management to sort out those offices that refuse to join the 21st century," Postwatch said.

In last year's documentary one of two undercover reporters claimed he encountered clear evidence of criminal activity, including organised gangs who work in the sorting offices in order to steal credit cards, passports and chequebooks.
 
The programme prompted a complaint from Royal Mail to Ofcom, resulting in Channel 4 acknowledging that no acts of thefts had been caught on camera, and that an on-camera claim by a worker that he had stolen a credit card from the distribution system was false.

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