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Goneaway suppression may well be the keystone of direct mail best practice but according to the latest research by The REaD Group, major industry sectors are not getting better - in fact they have worsened.

According to the latest annual report on use of the Gone Away Suppression (GAS) file, the percentage of records screened against all mail sent by the insurance sector sunk from 74 per cent to 33 per cent in the year ending August 2002. The travel sector is also down from 22 per cent to seven per cent of mail screened against GAS.

While some falls can be partly explained by more bureaux processing data and unable to reveal the sectors they clean for, Mark Roy, group managing director of The REaD Group, says the results are still worrying. "At tops, the mail order sector still only passes 10-11 per cent of its names through GAS, he says. "The industry has a responsibility to create a more positively disposed consumer but charities in particular remain unconvinced that suppression costs will generate better, more profitable returns."

According to the survey, the charity sector sends seven per cent of all direct mail but only 17 per cent of records are cleaned against the GAS file. It mails 20 million goneaways each year, wasting more than £11 million.

However, while some sectors deteriorated, mail order has improved and there is much better news for the financial services sector. Three years ago just over a third of mailed names were cleaned through GAS. Today it is at nearly 80 per cent. "Most of this has come from legislative pressure and data protection, says Roy.

However, poor cleaning rates don't tell the whole story, says Peter Ward, marketing campaign manager at insurance group First Direct. "Our industry doesn't use GAS because in-house databases are very clean. The nature of insurance means people give us change of address details themselves.

The only time we really use it is for cold lists - which might reveal five per cent of goneaways, he says.

With the Universal Suppression File and the DMA's National Suppression File also being pushed, it remains to be seen if the message sticks. The really interesting results will be next year, when the effect of not having the ER available kicks in, and suppression should, in theory, increase.

KEY FACTS

- More than nine per cent of charity mailings are to goneaways, rising from five per cent in 1999

- The financial services sector has saved more than £5 million per year by upping its level of suppression from 37 to 77 per cent

- The financial services sector now has the lowest average of goneaways by sector, at 2.44 per cent

- While only representing 2.9 per cent of all DM, the manufacturing sector has the highest pack price (£0.95) but only 0.4 per cent of all mail is screened against GAS.