POL00040953
POL00040953
IN CONFIDENCE
DRAFT LETTER TO SECOND SIGHT
Dear lan
Many thanks for your email of 11 March 2013, together with the draft of Second Sight’s Briefing
Report - Part 2.
In your email, you indicate that the current draft does not yet reflect certain matters addressed in
my letters to you of 10 March and that, accordingly, it would be updated in due course. Please let
me know what particular aspects of the report you feel need updating in light of those letters and
when you might be able to complete those changes?
You asked when the Post Office might be in a position to let you have its comments on the
substance of the draft report, so that you might plan your future work.
Post Office has significant concerns in relation to the following:
e As flagged in our letter to you dated [ ] in relation to [M103], the Report addresses areas
beyond the Scope of the Scheme and which Post Office believes are outside Second Sight’s
professional expertise; for instance Section 26 on investigations and prosecutions, and
Section 7, which purports to deal exclusively with the ‘commercial aspects’ of the Sub-
postmasters’ contract;
In many cases the evidential basis for claims and assertions is weak or absent; for instance,
in numerous places the Report notes issues that have been raised by Applicants and
assumes these are ”facts”, even though no evidence is provided to substantiate these
allegations [is the point here that SS don’t investigate whether there is evidence?]. \n
discussing previous iterations of this document, Post Office has stressed the importance of
evidence in this process. As previously stated: “this is most important where the
information provided by Applicants is anecdotal and has yet to be investigated and tested”.
The Report goes over much ground which we consider closed as a result of the explanations
already provided to Second Sight, often in exhaustive detail — for instance, Section 15 on
Remote Access Issues. [is our point that they have accepted our explanations and are re-
opening the issue, or haven’t they accepted our explanation?]
In addition to addressing these three broad areas of concern, I assume that you will satisfy
yourselves that the finalised version of the Report reflects your Terms of Engagement, as well as
your professional obligations more generally.
It is also difficult to see how a report of such length, the vast majority of which is comprised of
annexes containing your questions to the Post Office, and our answers to them, will assist Applicants
in preparing for mediation in any practical sense.
We are also preparing a more detailed response to your report so that it can be sent to Applicants
alongside yours. I expect that this more detailed [ draft?] response will be provided to you by close
of business on Monday, 23 March, giving you a further opportunity to make any further changes you
consider necessary in finalising your report.
POL00040953
POL00040953
However, I wish to stress that given the length of time which has already been expended on the
preparation of this final version of your Report, the Post Office does not consider that the remainder
of your notice period is best utilised, nor Applicants best served, by protracted discussion between
us in relation to the contents of either document. We therefore suggest that, ultimately, the two
documents will be sent to Applicants in parallel.
By limiting the amount of additional work on Part II both Post Office and Second Sight should
therefore be able to work on Applicants’ individual cases collaboratively in an appropriately
prioritised manner. With that in mind, please provide the Post Office with your final version of the
Report no later than close of business on 27 March, so that we can meet the expectation that your
report would be finalised and available to Applicants and mediators in time for the first week in
April.
Please confirm by return that you will meet this timetable for the finalised report, so that we can
offer Applicants certainty about the progress of their cases.
Yours
JM