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Message
From: Patrick Bourkel
on behalf of — Patrick Bourk
Sent: 01/03/2016
To: Jane Macleod ;
Subject: RE: Post Office - Chairman's Enquiry
hallelujah
From: Jane MacLeod
Sent: Tuesday, March 1, 2016 5:47 PM
To: Diane Blanchard
Cc: Patrick Bourke; Rodric Williams; Mark Underwood1
Subject: FW: Post Office - Chairman's Enquiry
Diane
Would you please arrange for the attached letter to be re-formatted as necessary and put on POL letterhead from the
Chairman ~ it needs to go to the Minister.
What are the arrangements for getting Tim to sign ?— can we get the letter set up as a pdf/word version and send to him
to print, sign & send or do we have electronic signature?
thanks
@ Jane MacLeod
General Counset
Ground Floor
20 Finsbury Street
LONDON
EC2Y 9AQ
Mobile number
From: Tim Parker
Sent: 01 March 2016 12:40
To: Jane MacLeod
Subject: Re: Post Office - Chairman's Enquiry
Jane
Tam happy with this letter as drafted: could you arrange for version on Post Office paper and I will sign.
Thanks.
Tim
Get Outlook for mobile
On Tue, Mar 1, 2016 at 4:16 AM -0800, "Jane MacLeod wrote:
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Tim
Further to our telephone discussion his morning, I attach the revised draft letter for you to consider. This now reflects
minor comments received from Jonathan Swift QC on Friday. We have also discussed the positioning of the letter with
Laura Thompson from the Minister’s office to ensure that we are not inadvertently creating disclosure issues for BIS or
the Minister,
Please let me know if you would like any changes, or would otherwise like to discuss the approach or contents. Once you
are happy with it, we can arrange for it to be put on Post Office letterhead.
We continue to make progress on the further lines of enquiry and I will send you a fortnightly update on Friday.
Kind regards,
Jane
2 Jane MacLeod
General Counsel
Ground Floor
20 Finsbury Street
LONDON
EC2Y 9AQ
Mobile number
From: Jane MacLeod
Sent: 19 February 2016 17:
To: Tim Parker; Tim Parker GRO i
Subject: Post Office - Chairman's Enquiry ~ ~
Tim
As discussed last week, we have considered the best way for you to brief the Minister on the outcome of your enquiry to
date. As you will recall, I expressed concerns that were we to provide the Minister with a copy of the legal advice you
have received from Jonathan Swift, there was a risk that privilege could be lost and that the report could become
disclosable by BIS through FOI requests or similar. We have also received a call from the Minister’s office in which they
sought to understand how the reporting would be undertaken. During that call it became apparent that BIS officials are
also concerned as to the legal status and positioning of any report received from you.
Accordingly we have sought to construct a report from you to the Minister which carries fewer risks should it ultimately
(have to) be made public by BIS, and which therefore balances a description of the scope of work that has been done
and the resulting key findings, with the need to retain privilege.
To this end, please find attached for your consideration a draft letter from you to the Minister. It describes the questions
addressed in the review work, as well as the high level findings, and it summarises the further work that is being
undertaken. We have discussed this approach with BIS, and believe that it will be acceptable to the Minister. We have
sent the draft letter to Jonathan Swift for him to advise whether he is satisfied as to how his findings are represented.
We have also progressed the recommendations for further enquiry:
* We have held several meetings with Deloitte to agree the scope of the work and we should have a final version
of the scope by early next week. We have sought to structure their work on a phased basis so that we have
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checkpoints after each phase to assess findings to date, and the cost and timings of moving to each successive
phase.
e We have sent instructions to Brian Altman QC on the specific legal questions that were
identified. Unfortunately he is in a major trial over the next 3 weeks, so it may be mid-March before he is able
to provide us with the formal advice that we have requested.
e We have also been working with Bond Dickinson (our external lawyers) to identify those call centre staff
whose records should be reviewed. We have now identified these records and are waiting for these to be
recalled from storage so we should be able to complete this line of enquiry within the next 2 weeks.
{hope that the form and content of the letter works for you. I will let you know of any changes or comments made
by Jonathan. As ever, please let me know if you would like to discuss this.
Kind regards,
Jane
® Jane MacLeod
General Counsel
Ground Floor
20 Finsbury Street
LONDON
EC2Y 9AQ
Mobile number
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