You will need to decide whether to use an in-house or an external printer to print your canvass communications. Whoever you use, you should be satisfied they will be able to cope with the complexity and volume of printed material to be produced.
You should ensure that data protection principles are met in any contract tender exercise, and document your decision-making process. Whenever you use a processor, data protection legislation imposes a legal obligation to formalise the working relationship with them.
Whether you are using an in-house or external printer, you must have a written agreement or contract in place. This will help to ensure that the requirements of data protection legislation will be met, including the requirements relating to appointing a processor.
Following the national data matching step, and any local data matching, you will have allocated all of your properties to the appropriate canvass routes, made decisions about which communication channels you plan to use for canvass communications at each stage and how you will manage their distribution.
You will then be in a position to confirm with your print supplier the number of printed canvass communications that you require.
You will need to agree a detailed production schedule with your supplier for your printed canvass communications which should include:
Timescales for proofing canvass communications
The volume of printed canvass communications for each route
Printer deadlines for sending data
Dates the printer will deliver canvass communications to you (where canvass communications are being delivered back to you ready for onward delivery)
Scheduling of delivery dates from the printer to Royal Mail, other delivery services or your offices for the purpose of hand-delivery
Timing of the production and dispatch of any follow-up communications where required
We have designed templates for each of the different printed canvass communications, some of which you are required to use. You can find more information on the template communications and how to use these in our forms and letters guidance.
Your printer will need to produce proofs of the templates for printed canvass communications, and you will need to check these. Once you have approved the template proofs you should send test data to ensure that data fields appear correctly. Our data protection guidance for EROs and ROs highlights the importance of having a robust proof checking process in place when working with a processor in order to detect any errors and avoid data breaches before they occur.
If you are planning to use Royal Mail or other delivery services you should consider the delivery options they offer and any discounts based on the types and volumes of printed communications you expect to send out to determine which option will best meet your needs.