POL00024179
POL00024179
Message
From: Andrew Parsons...
Sent: 28/08/2018 15: .
To: Jane MacLeod j,.. Patrick Bourke (.
ce: Mark Underwood “I Rodric William:
Subject: RE: Litigation - CONFIDENTIAL AND SUBJECT TO LEGAL PRIVILEGE [WBDUK-AC.FID26896945]
dane
No comments from me on the briefing below.
Thanks
Andy
Andrew Parsons
Partner
Womble Bond Dickinson (UK) LLP
Stay informed: sign up to our e-alerts
*\ WOMBLE womblebonddickinson.com
“ BOND
DICKINSON yo
From: Jane MacLeod
Sent: 28 August 2018 13:40
To: Patrick Bourke
Cc: Andrew Parsons; Mark Underwood! Rodric Williams; Alice Cookson
Subject: RE: Litigation - CONFIDENTIAL AND SUBJECT TO LEGAL PRIVILEGE
Thanks Patrick.
I think the main area that would be of concern would be the ‘risks’ section below. Has anyone else commented on the
suggested briefing below? If not, ’ll send to Paula (minus the risks) tomorrow morning my time (end Tuesday yours}
Thanks
e Jane MacLeod
Group Director of Legai, Risk & Governance
Ground Floor
20 Finsbury Street
LONDON
EC2Y 9AQ
Mobile number:
From: Patrick Bourke
Sent: 28 August 2018 10:21
To: Jane MacLeod
Cc: Andrew Parsons
POL-0020658
POL00024179
POL00024179
Rodric Williams!
Subject: RE: Litigation - CONFIDENTIAL AND SUBJECT TO LEGAL PRIVILEGE
Jane
Hope ail well on your side of the world.
Tom A has confirmed that the Minister has signed the information sharing protocol, though not all of his team has.
Neither he nor Tom C can attend the meeting with the Minister on Monday and he’s saying that if Paula were to go into
any detail on the litigation, he’d want to ask lawyers to attend etc.
Can I suggest, in the circs, that we encourage Paula to avoid anything other than clocking the fact it’s an issue, and that
there’s a meeting on 17/10 to discuss in the right forum ?
We can encourage this with Paula at our end, but if you’re sending the brief direct to her (could you confirm ?), perhaps
you could do the same ?
Best wishes
Patrick
From: Alice Cookson
Sent: 24 August 2018 11:59
To: Jane MacLeod <
Cc: Patrick Bourke Andrew Parsons
Underwood ; Rodric Williams <i
Subject: RE: Litigation - CONFIDENTIAL AND SUBJECT TO LEGAL PRIVILEGE
“by Mark
Thanks Jane — that’s incredibly helpful.
We will pick up with UKGI and work out what has been said to the Minister.
Does anyone have any further comments on Jane’s note below? Otherwise I will add it to the wider briefing pack.
Thanks very much,
Alice
“ Alice Cookson
Head of Public Affairs
Finsbury Dials
Cf 20 Finsbury Street
2017 Winner of the London EC2Y 94Q
Global Postal Award for
Customer Experience
From: Jane MacLeod
Sent: 24 August 2018 09:53
POL-0020658
POL00024179
POL00024179
To: Alice Cookson <7
Ce: Patrick Bourke < :
Underwood _ t; Rodric Williams <r
Subject: RE: Litigation - CONFIDENTIAL AND SUBJECT TO LEGAL PRIVILEGE
Thanks Alice, ’'m afraid Rod is on holidays so you get me ....
While I have tried to keep the following high level, and not reflect legal advice, we need to be mindful of legal privilege
issues. To that end please comment on the following and then I will forward it to Paula.
My expectation is that UKGI/BEIS will have briefed the Minister on the litigation, and we have a meeting with the Perm
Sec and the Minister on 17 October. We were told specifically that they would be briefed on the litigation so we didn’t
need to cover the background. So it would be helpful if they would tell us what they've toid the Minister, ahead of
Paula’s meeting, and confirmed that the Minister has signed the Litigation protocol.
Given that the litigation is only one topic in a 45 minute briefing, I would make the following points for Paula (although
some of the language will need to be aligned with more public statements) :
e — Litigation follows a number of years during which Post Office sought to understand the concerns of postmasters
and address their issues. While many of the claims alleged faults with the Horizon computer system, to date no
evidence of systemic problems have emerged, rather there is a pattern of operational errors in branch, as well
as, in specific cases, where Post Office could have done more to support postmasters.
e — Litigation was commenced in early 2017 and involves claims by 561 postmasters. The specific details of their
claims have not been provided, and we do not have any details as to the possible quantum of damages that they
may seek.
e — Litigation is being managed by the Court in phases:
© Common Issues trial (4 weeks in November 2018} - to determine the proper construction of the contract
between Post Office and agents, and whether approximately 21 further terms should be implied into
that contract
© Horizon trial (4 weeks in March 2019) to determine the Horizon issues ~ the questions to be posed are
still being agreed between the respective experts
o Thereafter, and to be scheduled, one or more trials to determine whether in specific cases Post Office
was in breach of contractual and other duties to postmasters, as a result of which postmasters suffered
‘damage’ and / or loss for which they should be compensated by way of a financial award of damages.
© The key risks in the litigation are that:
9 the Court’s decision on one or more of the ‘Common Issues’ has a material adverse impact on Post
Office’s operations.
°
as a result of the decision, postmasters either refuse to pay any amounts owing to Post Office, or delay
payment, in either case providing Post Office with significant operational and cash flow issues
© the Court determines that there are systemic issues with the Horizon system, such that
transactions between postmasters and Post Office are not seen to be reliable
© Public opinion goes against Post Office as a result of the decision such that we lose both the trust of the
public and of our key (government and commercial) stakeholders.
* Weare developing contingency plans to address these risks and will discuss these in more detail at the meeting
on 17 October.
* Detailed briefings have been provided to UKGI under a protocol which is designed to protect Post Office’s
privileged legal advice.
Let me know if you think we need more than this.
Thanks,
Jane
POL-0020658
® Jane MacLeod
Group Director of Legai, Risk & Governance
Ground Floor
20 Finsbury Street
LONDON
EC2Y 9AQ
Mobile number:
From: Alice Cookson
Sent: 24 August 21
To: Jane MacLeod
Ce: Patrick Bourke
Subject: Liti
Hi Jane,
Thope you're well
POL00024179
POL00024179
Patrick and I had a call with Paula yesterday to discuss her meeting with the new Minister, scheduled for the 3rd
September.
Included in the briefing is an overview of some of the risks we currently face, one of which is the litigation.
Paula asked if we could get in touch with you directly, to get your thoughts on what Paula should be saying to
the Minister at this point. She has asked for a concise one pager on our current position.
As you know, we already have a large amount of material on this, so it may be a case of finessing what we
already have - but I wanted to ask your thoughts in the first instance. [ appreciate it may be easier for me to talk
directly to Rodric, which I am very happy to do.
We have until mid next week to finalise the briefing.
Thanks very much
Alice
Get Outlook for iOS
POL-0020658
POL00024179
POL00024179
FICIOROI CIO ICICI CIO GR I OK ICI 3 2 a 2k 21 2 2k fe 2k Fe 2k ek fe 2k af ae ake af af af fea aR ake a 2 a 2k a 2k a 2k a 2 ake ae 2k a 2k 2k fe ak afc ak ae ake ae ak ae ak
This email and any attachments are confidential and intended for the addressee only. If you are not the named.
recipient, you must not use, disclose, reproduce, copy or distribute the contents of this communication. If you
have received this in error, please contact the sender by reply email and then delete this email from your system.
Any views or opinions expressed within this email are solely those of the sender, unless otherwise specifically
stated.
POST OFFICE LIMITED is registered in England and Wales no 2154540. Registered Office: Finsbury Dials,
20 Finsbury Street, London EC2Y 9AQ.
2A FF CF KR 2B FF KR RR R01 0 08 2 00K 08 08 C421 0 RR 00 0 0 CCG 0
POL-0020658