JARBO000104
JARB0000104
From: The Rt. Hon. James Arbuthnot, M.P.
HOUSE OF COMMONS
LONDON SWIA 0AA
28 January 2015
Adrian Bailey
Chairman
Business, Innovation and Skills Select Committee
House of Commons
London SW1A OAA
1. Debeion.
1 would be grateful if the enclosed documents and this letter were to be accepted as written
evidence to the Committee’s inguiry into the Post Office Mediation Scheme on Tuesday 3
February 2015.
For the past four years I have led a group of over 140 MPs all of whom have at least one
constituent who was a SubPostmaster or SubPostmistress who has been affected by the
Matter the Post Office Mediation Scheme was established to address. Two constituents of
mine were affected (so far as I know ~ there could have been more) and one is a participant
in the Scheme,
Oliver Letwin and I persuaded the Post Office to address this matter and it was with our
agreement that the Mediation Scheme was set up. Over this period I have met repeatedly
with senior Post Office personnel, including the Chief Executive Officer, the independent
investigators at Second Sight, and Alan Bates of the Justice for SubPostmasters Alliance. I
had great faith and hopes that the scheme would serve all participants well: it would provide
redress for those individuals who believe they have been wrongly accused, and sometimes
convicted, of false accounting and fraud and it would offer the Post Office the Opportunity
both to put matters right where mistakes had been made and retain its good reputation. I
am afraid that my faith has disappeared.
T would like to submit a number of documents for the Committee's consideration.
1. A letter from the CEO of Post Office Limited to me of 28 November 2014. This letter
followed a meeting she and several personnel from Post Office attended in my office
at the House of Commons with a group of concerned MPs to discuss the increasing
GRO} Emai
Telephone:I Website; www.jamesarbuthnot.com
JARB0000104
JARBO000104