Posted By Nick Egan Has anyone any experience of EL claims from people being bitten on the hand when posting through a letterbox? Do the Post Office have to settle 100's of claims of this nature? I don't see our local Pat wearing any PPE, is it all in the training? Is liability all down to the dog owner/house occupier? Yours doggedly Nick

Posted By Allan St.John Holt We do indeed have quite a lot of dog bites - around 2,000 a year. We also have a lot of animal attack incidents, e.g. where the postie gets chased down the path by the dog and doesn't clear the gate in a single bound.. So we have very detailed procedures including training on how to deliver safely, how to deal with animals and how to identify a house where there's a dodgy dog or other animal. It's a thick A4 binder, and therefore I won't offer to make it generally available. But if anyone wants more information on specific issues, just ask. As to claims, fortunately most of the injuries are relatively minor. I don't have any figures on numbers or value readily available, but the numbers aren't as big as one might expect. Hope this helps, Allan (Head of Safety, Royal Mail Group)