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Message
From: Jane MacLeod ;
on behalf of — Jane MacLeod
Sent: 10/10/2015 9
To: Jonathan.Swi
cc: Patrick Bourk Mark
Underwoodi.
Subject: FW: draft terms of reference
Attachments: 151009 Mediation Scheme Timeline - Confidential & Subject to Legal Privi....docx
Jonathan
Many thanks for your email yesterday. The following is a summary of our current plans:
e Attached is a draft chronology of events over the last 4 years. This has been collated from work done at
different times by various teams so includes a range of types of events. However it does highlight the
political and media comments. We are currently collating the correspondence and other documents that
underpin that chronology, and will seek to get that to you early next week.
e we will also send to you on Monday our initial response to your questions regarding investigations into
the IT system and the support provided by the call centre.
e we have scheduled a meeting between yourself and Tim Parker for Tuesday 20 October. Unfortunately
Tim's diary availability is limited, so we wanted to ensure that the time was set aside. Hopefully we can
also get a further meeting with you next week to address any outstanding questions and get greater
clarity on the proposed scope, before your meeting with Tim.
Once you have had a chance to review the materials we send through on Monday, it would be useful to discuss
what (if any) other aspects should be in scope. One of the difficulties we have encountered over the last few
years, is that the nature of the concerns expressed in public have shifted such that references to
‘Horizon’ implicitly (and sometime explicitly) encompass other issues — this can be seen from the extracts in the
chronology.
This has been compounded by the fact that while the initial concerns arising from individual cases raised the
possibility of a systemic problem with Horizon (the IT system), no evidence has been found of either such a
systemic problem, or that the underlying causes of individual complaints of participants in the Scheme were
attributable to any such systemic issue. Clearly this is not the same as positive assurance that there are no such
problems ( which is the basis of your initial questions), but it has led Second Sight (in particular) to expand the
interpretation such that references to 'systemic issues’ are now interpreted by Second Sight as including training,
support and even the extent of the contractual arrangements between postmasters and the Post Office.
We will therefore need to be satisfied that, to the extent possible, the scope of Tim's review at least addresses
these concerns even if it may not satisfy the various interested parties .
Kind regards,
Jane MacLeod
Jane MacLeod
General Counsel
Ground Floor
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On 9 Oct 2015, at 08:51, Jonathan Swift _
Dear Jane and Rodric,
Thank you again for the instructions on this matter.
As mentioned in the course of the consultation yesterday, I have had a stab at preparing a list that
can be the starting point for deciding what the terms of reference should be. It is a little rough
and ready, and is very much a draft, for discussion. However, I thought it would be better to get
something to you sooner than later, so the process of consideration can begin. As you will see I
have drafted a list the is wide enough to cover everything that could have been done in response
to the complaints. We can then check this against what we have already done, and form a view as
to what we need now.
Tam in court today, but should be back in chambers by 4.30-ish. Otherwise I am back in
chambers on Monday morning.
Regards,
Jonathan
Jonathan Swift QC
11 KBW
141, King's Bench Walk,
Temple, London. EC4Y 7EQ.
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