POL00117757
POL00117757
From: Kerry F Moodie[f
Sent: Mon 17/07/2017 4:07:33 PM (UTC)
To: Natalie Whitty[
Underwood1
Mark
Patrick
Ce: Rodric Williams[r._
Subject: RE: Post Office Facts Twitter Account
Attachment: lain Tarron FOIA Response 30 03 17.pdf
Hi All,
There was only one request from an individual named lain Tarron on the What Do They Know website, he has since
changed the name on the WDTK account to Andrew Whyte.
Regards,
Kerry Moodie
Information Rights Manager
Ground Floor
20 Finsbury Street
LONDON
EC2Y 9AQ
Telephone number:
Mobile number:
From: Natalie Whitty
Sent: 17 July 2017 17:05
To: Mark Underwood1 Mark R Davies
jelanie Corfield
Pressoffice
<t.
Ce: Rodric Williams
Subject: RE: Post Office Facts Twitter Account
Here we go:
https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/user/andrew_whyte 2
Thanks
Natalie Whitty
Strategic Communications, Brand and Campaigns Director
2017 Winner of the _ Finsbury Dials
Global Postal Award 20 Finsbury Street
POL00117757
POL00117757
for Customer London EC2Y 94Q
Experience
From: Mark Underwood1
Sent: 17 July 2017 16:21
To: Natalie Whitty; Ben Foat; Mark R Davies; Darren Jones1; Melanie Corfield; Joanne Leahy; Pressoffice; Patrick
Bourke
Ce: Rodric Williams; Kerry F Moodie
Subject: RE: Post Office Facts Twitter Account
Hi Natalie,
We don’t have anything in our records. If you are able to provide the link from Google, we’ll do some further digging.
Mark
Mark Underwood
Head of Portfolio: Legal, Risk &
Governance
2017 Winner of the
Global Postal Award Ground Floor
for Customer 20 Finsbury Street
Experience London EC2Y 9AQ
Mobile numbe
From: Natalie Whitty
Sent: 17 July 2017 15:58
To: Ben Foat; Mark R Davies; Darren Jones1; Melanie Corfield; Joanne Leahy; Pressoffice; Patrick Bourke; Mark
Underwood1
Ce: Rodric Williams
Subject: RE: Post Office Facts Twitter Account
Hi Ben
It looks like there have been a couple of FOls from an Andrew Whyte before — we last responded to one in March (this
is info from Google not internally!)
Mark U, do we have any further information on him?
Best wishes
Natalie
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Natalie Whitty
Strategic Communications, Brand and Campaigns Director
2017 Winner of the _ Finsbury Dials
Global Postal Award 20 Finsbury Street
for Customer London EC2Y 94Q
Experience Q
From: Ben Foat
Sent: 17 July 2017 15:16
To: Mark R Davies; Darren Jones1; Melanie Corfield; Joanne Leahy; Natalie Whitty; Pressoffice; Patrick Bourke
Ce: Rodric Williams
Subject: FW: Post Office Facts Twitter Account
Mark / All
Further to my email below, I have had a quick response from the lawyers who support on Sparrow (as I wanted their
views regarding the comments that are on website).
Andy Parsons has noted that the website owner is a Andrew Whyte — Is this name familiar to anyone at POL? It could
be a fictitious name but may be worthwhile finding out.
Andy has advised that the sections of the website that relate to the Horizon litigation are a repetition of statements
we've seen before. Although they are defamatory in parts, he would advise against asserting any claim as that could
be twisted as acting oppressively in the Group Litigation.
The other sections of the website (relating to branch closures and financial issues) need to be reviewed by POL to
highlight exactly what statements are untrue. If there is plainly untrue material in here, external lawyers could
produce a "cease and desist" letter (as set out below).
Andy’s sense however is to leave this (particularly from the Group Litigation perspective). According to the website
hit counter, only 1500 people have visited the website and there are only 2 followers on Twitter.
Hope that helps. Around to discuss now if you are about?
Kind regards
Ben
Ben Foat
Legal Director
2017 Winner of the Global Finsbury Dials,
Postal Award for Customer 20 Finsbury Street,
Experience London EC2Y 9AQ
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R The Post Office Legal Team was recognised as one of the top In-House Retail Teams at the Lawyer Awards
2016 and has been shortlisted for Best Banking and Financial Services Inhouse Team in 2017
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.
From: Ben Foat
; Darren J.
_>; Joanne Leahy
Pressoffice <_
Melanie
'>; Natalie Whitty
Patrick Bourke
Hi Mark
Some initial comments:
e Defamation as you'll know is the publication of untrue material about a party which damages the reputation of
that party. Post Office can of course be libelled as a corporate victim and Sally Bercow learned a heavy lesson
of making untrue statements on Twitter; see here:
https:/Awww.thequardian.com/politics/2013/may/24/sally-bercow-tweet-libelled-lord-mcalpine
e There are various defences to a defamation claim, including that the material published is "fair comment on a
matter of public interest". POL's modernisation programme is a matter of public interest, so some of the
material will inevitably fall into that category. That said, statements of purported fact which are untrue cannot
be comments or opinions, and are defamatory if damage to POL's reputation is the consequence.
e Wecan send suitable letters to whoever is behind the Twitter account and website and to any ISP. The letters
could, of course, threaten litigation but care needs to be taken as to whether to do so given the need to follow
through on the threat if no action is taken in response to it. Libel proceedings are costly and would run the risk
of POL having in effect to justify its position on its modernisation strategy in a very public forum, which may
be undesirable.
e In terms of cost estimates for external lawyers, considering the material in detail, liaising with us, drafting
letters, and sending them off would involve fees in the region of £2500 plus VAT. They may subsequently
involve Counsel with preparing and issuing proceedings and we can of course get estimates for that and would
put our fees at a further £3000-5000 plus VAT as a minimum.
I’m in back to back meetings today and on leave for the rest of the week but can do a call now if that helps (though we
are on the L300 call) but I hope the above helps.
Kind regards
Ben
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Ben Foat
Legal Director
2017 Winner of the Global Finsbury Dials,
Postal Award for Customer 20 Finsbury Street,
Experience London EC2Y 94Q
i The Post Office Legal Team was recognised as one of the top In-House Retail Teams at the Lawyer Awards
2016 and has been shortlisted for Best Banking and Financial Services Inhouse Team in 2017
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.
From: Mark R Davies
; Darren Jones1 < Melanie Corfield
Joanne Leahy < >; Natalie Whitty
ressoffice < Patrick Bourke
>
Subject: RE: Post Office Facts Twitter Account
A little. So we need to use carefully and where it’s worth it. Let’s catch up?
Mark Davies
Group Communications, Brand and Corporate Affairs Director
1st Floor
Finsbury Dials
20 Finsbury Street
London EC2Y 9AQ
From: Ben Foat
Sent: 17 July 2017 11:56
POL00117757
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>; Darren Jones1
To: Mark R Davies ¢ “>; Melanie
Corfield <{._ GRO >; Joanne Leahy ; Natalie Whitty
~ 'ressoffice Patrick Bourke
I GRO P
Subject: RE: Post Office Facts Twitter Account
Hi Mark
Websites like these are difficult to get down. There may be arguments about the content being defamatory or misuse
of trade mark etc. Ultimately, we may need to make an application to a Court.
Is there any branding budget for brand protection (for matters like these or trade mark infringement etc)?
Kind regards
Ben
Ben Foat
Legal Director
2017 Winner of the Global Finsbury Dials,
Postal Award for Customer 20 Finsbury Street,
Experience London EC2Y 9AQ
R The Post Office Legal Team was recognised as one of the top In-House Retail Teams at the Lawyer Awards
2016 and has been shortlisted for Best Banking and Financial Services Inhouse Team in 2017
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.
From: Mark R Davies
Sent: 17 July 2017 1
To: Darren Jones1 <
; Joanne
; Pressoffice
Cc: Ben Foat
Subject: RE: Post Office Facts Twitter Account
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Thank you Darren
I would like get a legal opinion on any action we could take.As the content is clearly defamatory I am
not keen on it being a publicly available website.
Copying Ben in first instance. Please can you advise?
Mark Davies
Group Communications, Brand and Corporate Affairs Director
ist Floor
Finsbury Dials
20 Finsbury Street
ndon EC2Y 9AQ
From: Darren Jones1
Sent: 17 July 2017 1
To: Mark R Davies <
Leahy < Natalie Whitty< _>} Pressoffice
Subject Post Office Facts Twitter Account
Morning all,
https://twitter.com/PostOfficeFacts
Bit of a round robin email, but writing to make all aware of the above account, which is sharing
internal information.
As we know, this isn’t the first time we’ve had such an account set-up, and historically - the activity
from these accounts dwindles after a week or so. Also has very few followers at the moment.
http://postofficetruth.co.uk/
However for this, I can see that a website has also been created, which suggests there’s an intention
by the creator to make more of a ‘thing’ of this — given the effort that would have gone into creating
the website in the first place.
Darren
Darren Jones
Social Media & Audience Insight Manager
2017 Winner of the — Finsbury Dials,
Global Postal Award 2 Finsbury Street,
for Customer London, EC2Y 94Q
Experience
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