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Message
From: Alisdair Cameron
on behalf of — Alisdair Cameron
Sent: 03/10/2019 06:
To: Ben Foat {
ce: Nick Read.
Subject: Re: GLO - Disclosure Incident - Legally Privileged
Ben I read this with real distress, it is horrendous. Of course we must tell the court immediately now we know. The
narrative should be very clear that Fujitsu told us one thing and have now told us something else and we have at all times
told the court what we believe to be true.
The shareholder needs briefing - Richard Watson I guess and the Board sub-commiitice.
Fir Fj we have time to make decisions but this is the third time they have misled us or changed stories and I think we have
to follow that logic. So, what is the appropriate response? Do we need to insist that a third party review and test their
evidence?
You will probably hear a lot of distress and anger as you explain all this. We all know it is not your fault so don’t worry
about being the unfortunate messenger.
Al
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From: Ben Foa'
Sent: Wednesday, October 2, 2019 10:30 pm
To: Nick Read; Alisdair Cameron; Mark R Davies
Ce: Shikha Hornsey; Rodric Williams; Sherrill Taggart; Watts, Alan; Emanuel, Catherine; Kenneth Garvey; Gary Walker
Subject: GLO - Disclosure Incident - Legally Privileged
Hi Nick, Al, and Mark
A disclosure issue has arisen in respect of the GLO Horizon trial for you to be aware. It appears that Post Office failed to
disclose potentially relevant documents in those proceedings. You will recall that we are currently awaiting the Court's
judgment in respect of those proceedings.
Context
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Fujitsu had previously informed Post Office that the “Known Error Logs” (KELs), which were key documents in the
Horizon Issues trial because they documented for helpline staff the known issues in Horizon with the work around and
fixes, were overwritten when updated such that no previous versions were kept and only current versions could be
disclosed. Post Office relied on that information when completing the Electronic Disclosure Statement which was
subsequently communicated to the Claimants in December 2017. However, Fujitsu advised Post Office yesterday that
past versions of the KELs do, in fact, exit. Consequently, the scope of disclosure as represented and provided was
inaccurate.
Issue
1. Post Office’s credibility and the perception around Post Office’s approach to managing the litigation {ie
Claimants’ overarching criticism of Post Office not being transparent, seeking to conceal and not providing full
disclosure); and
2. Whether the previous KELs (the volume is not yet known) could cause the experts to change their evidence
and/or impact the substance of the case before the Court
Actions/ Next Steps
Post Office remains under a disclosure obligation and therefore is required to notify the Claimants of the extra KELs
urgently. This is likely to result in the Claimants notifying the Justice Fraser as part of their overarching criticism of Post
Office's disclosure.. The GLO Legal team (externals and in-house lawyers) are, together with the ClO and her team,
drafting the appropriate disclosure.
There are a number of next steps:
1. We will write to the Claimant solicitors tomorrow advising them of the issue and updating the Electronic
Disclosure Statement ~ the Legal team recommends explaining Post Office relied on FJ when it made its
inaccurate disclosure statement and offering to provide the previous KELs upfront;
2. FJ have been instructed to provide the previous KELs to us which we will need to assess and disclose to the
Claimants;
3. We need to have an understanding of whether the KELs (the scale of which is to be determined) would likely
affect the evidence that was provided at Trial.
4, Justice Fraser may reconvene the Court and seek further evidence from the experts as to whether previous KEL
versions would have affected their evidence. If this occurs Post Office may be liable for the costs of the hearing
{for both sides);
5. Stakeholder management ~ the Board and UKGI should be advised of this development though we still need to
finalise some of the investigation so that we can properly brief them. Mark Davies / Comms should be made
aware (especially if the Claimants do complain to the Court and Court is reconvened where this issue could
become public).
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6. Horizon Contingency Planning — factor in the likely adverse comments that Fraser J may make as a result of this
issue and what specific findings he could make around POL processes in respect of Horizon and its processes in
respect of this issue.
Ihave also asked the Legal Team to advise on POL's prospects in respect of a right of action against FJ in these
circumstances though I appreciate that the issue needs to be considered in a broader context (supporting the future
GLO case; broader commercial impact; business continuity gap / alternative provider etc). In addition, I have asked the
team to ascertain what Post Office did to assure itself that the information provided by FJ (its outsource supplier) was
accurate and what controls were/are in place to provide such assurance. One of the areas that we have already been
considering is whether FJ should be joined to the proceedings depending on the outcome of the Horizon Judgment.
Input Sought
Please do let me know if you would like to discuss or see the Disclosure Letter tomorrow before we send it across to the
Claimants solicitors.
I will continue to update on the progress of the matter. Please do let me know if you have any queries in the meantime.
Kind regards
Ben
Ben Foat
Group General Counsel
Ground Floor
20 Finsbury Street
LONDON
EC2Y 9AQ
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