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PS 14/7-14/15 POST OFFICE LTD
PROJECT SPARROW SUB-COMMITTEE
Minutes of a meeting of the Project Sparrow Sub-Committee of the Board
held at 148 Old Street, London EC1V 9HQ on Wednesday 30 April 2014
Present: Alice Perkins (AP) Chair
Alasdair Marnoch (AM) Non-Executive Director
Richard Callard (RC) Non-Executive Director
Paula Vennells (PV) CEO
Chris Aujard (CA) General Counsel
In Attendance:
Alwen Lyons (AL) Company Secretary
Belinda Crowe (BC) Programme Director, Project Sparrow
Mark Davies (MD) Communications and Corporate Affairs
Director
PS 14/7 OPENING OF MEETING
A quorum being present, the Chair opened the meeting of the Project
Sparrow Sub-Committee (“the Committee’).
PS 14/8 RECENT CORRESPONDENCE
(a) The Committee considered the correspondence between Alan Bates,
Chairman, Justice for Subpostmasters Alliance, and Jenny Willott MP.
Chris Aujard explained that Sir Anthony Hooper, the Independent
{b) Chairman of the Working Group, now had a copy of the Alan Bates
fetter and that the letter was due to be discussed at the Working
Group meeting to be held later in the week. It was noted that the Post
Office would have an opportunity at the meeting to rebut any
erroneous comments in the letter.
Mark Davies confirmed that a reactive statement had been prepared
(c) for use should Alan Bates circulate the letter further.
It was agreed that the Business would update James Arbuthnot MP,
ACTION: (d) who had a copy of the letter from Alan Bates, after the Working Group
Belinda Crowe meeting.
It was also agreed that the CEO would consider whether she would
ACTION: CEO (e) respond to the letter after the Working Group had met.
PS 14/9 PUBLIC STATEMENTS MADE ABOUT THE INITIAL COMPLAINT
REVIEW AND MEDIATION SCHEME (‘THE SCHEME’)
(a) The Committee noted a paper on the Ministerial commitments made
with regard to the Scheme.
PS 14/10 DISSEMINATION OF THE LINKLATERS ADVICE AND DELOITTE
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REPORT
(a) The Committee received a paper on the dissemination of the
Linklaters advice and the Deloitte report from Chris Aujard.
(b) Chris Aujard reported on a conversation that he had had with Gareth
James, Deloitte Partner, after the Board meeting in which he
explained the visibility of “Transaction Corrections” (“TCs”) on the
transaction log. Chris Aujard further explained that Gareth Jones
thought the fact that the TCs were visible would enable his assurance
work to be completed more quickly. Chris Aujard was asked to liaise
ACTION: with Deloitte to ascertain what level of assurance could be achieved in
Chris Aujard 1, 2 or 3 weeks and at what cost.
ACTION: (c) It was understood that pre 2010 assurance might be more difficult and
Chris Aujard take longer to attain, and the Committee discussed the use of the
detailed logs provided for the Court cases as evidence for Deloitte.
(d) It was agreed that the Linklaters paper was too long and that the
language needed to be clearer so as to enable it to be understood
and accepted by a layman should it be made available publically.
(e) The Committee agreed that the Linklaters advice and (the draft
ACTION: summary) Deloitte report would not be disseminated at this point but
Belinda Crowe the Business would consider when it might want to use the
documents and the contextual piece over the next months and return
to the committee on this issue.
PS 14/11 EX GRATIA AND SETTLEMENT PAYMENTS UNDER THE
SCHEME
(a) The Committee were provided with advice on ex gratia scheme
payments and a briefing on settlement payments and Conditional Fee
Agreements (“CFAs”) from Chris Aujard.
(b) The Committee agreed that it was not appropriate to make ex gratia
payments under the Scheme.
(c) The Committee discussed the CFAs and the issue that some sub
postmasters may be inflating their claims so as to cover their advisors’
ACTION: fees. The Business was asked to raise this matter at the Working
Belinda Crowe Group and to make it clear that in the Post Office's view the Scheme
had not been designed and should not be used as a mechanism for
advisors to make money.
PS 14/12 THE ROLE OF SECOND SIGHT
(a) The Committee received a paper on the options to support Second
Sight or reduce their role in supporting the Scheme.
(b)
Belinda Crowe explained that Anthony Hooper had indicated that he
was broadly content with the Post Office investigation reports but had
suggested the conclusions should be sharper and more assertive
where appropriate. He had challenged the quality of all three of
Second Sight’s reports and had asked that they be re-written.
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However, until he deems that they are not performing their role it will
be difficult to dispense with them.
ACTION: (c) Belinda Crowe explained that Second Sight had committed to produce
Chris Aujard three reports for discussion at the 1 May Working Group, but had in
fact only produced one such report. It was noted that their
performance continued to be jess than satisfactory.
ACTION: (d) Mark Davies was asked to produce reactive communication line to be
Mark Davies used in the event of Second Sight or JFSA decide “to walk away” from
the Working Group.
PS 14/13 CLOSURE/ACCELERATED COMPLETION OF THE SCHEME
(a) The Committee considered a paper on the options for the closure of
the Scheme and for the acceleration of its completion.
(b) Belinda Crowe explained that only 80 of the c140 cases in the
Scheme had submitted a fully worked up case questionnaire response
for investigation. She believed that if all applicants and their advisors
could be given a deadline for submitting their case questionnaires the
Business could complete the majority of the investigations by the
summer.
(c) The Committee agreed that, subject to a satisfactory outcome from
the Deloitte assurance assessment, the Programme Team should
ACTION: develop an implementation plan based on Option 2 — that is, to
Chris Aujard/ continue to investigate cases but bring it within the control of the Post
Belinda Crowe Office.
(d) The Committee asked the Business whether enough resource was
ACTION: allocated to the Project. Belinda Crowe agreed to consider the
Belinda Crowe resource after the Working Group meeting on the 1° May.
PS14/14 DATE OF NEXT MEETING
The date of next meeting of the Committee to be agreed after the
Working Group meeting on the 1* May.
PS 14115 CLOSE
There being no further business, the meeting closed.