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PS 14/7-14/ POST OFFICE LTD
PROJECT SPARROW SUB-COMMITTEE
Minutes of a meeting of the Project Sparrow Sub-Committee of the Board
held at 148 Old Street, London EC1V 9HQ on Wednesday 30 April 2014
Present: Alice Perkins (AP) Chair
Alasdair Marnoch (AM) Non-Executive Director
Richard Callard (RC) Non-Executive Director
Paula Vennells (PV) CEO
Chris Aujard (CA) General Counsel
In Attendance:
Alwen Lyons (AL) Company Secretary
Belinda Crowe (BC) Programme Director, Project Sparrow
Mark Davies (MD) Communications and Corporate Affairs
Director
PS 14/7 OPENING OF MEETING
A quorum being present, the Chair opened the meeting of the
Project Sparrow Sub-Committee (“the Committee”) and welcomed
Mark Davies, Communications Director, to the meeting.
PS 14/8 RECENT CORRESPONDENCE
(a) The Committee considered the correspondence received from Alan
Bates, Chairman, Justice for Subpostmasters Alliance and Jenny
Willott MP.
(b) Chris Aujard explained that Anthony Hooper, the Independent
Chairman of the Working Group now has a copy of the Alan Bates
letter which will be tabled at the Working Group meeting this week
and the Post Office will have an opportunity to rebut the comments
made.
(c) Mark Davies assured the Committee that a reactive statement had
been prepared for use if Alan Bates circulated the letter further.
ACTION: (d) It was agreed that the Business would update James Arbuthnot MP,
Belinda Crowe who has a copy of the letter from Alan Bates, after the Working
Group meeting.
ACTION: CEO It was also agreed that the CEO would consider if she would respond
to the letter after the Working Group meeting
PS 14/9 PUBLIC STATEMENTS MADE ABOUT THE INITIAL COMPLAINT
REVIEW AND MEDIATION SCHEME (‘THE SCHEME’)
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(a) The Committee noted a paper on the ministerial commitments made
with regard to the Scheme.
PS 14/10 DISSEMINATION OF THE LINKLATERS ADVICE AND DELOITTE
REPORT
(a) The Committee received a report on the dissemination of the
Linklaters advice and the Deloitte report from Chris Aujard.
(b) Chris Aujard reported a conversation with Gareth Jones, Deliotte
Partner, after the Board meeting in which he explained the visibility of
transaction corrections on the transaction log, and that Gareth Jones
ACTION: through this would enable a faster conclusion to his assurance work.
Chris Aujard Chris Aujard was asked to understand from Deloitte what could be
achieved in 1, 2 or 3 weeks and at what cost.
(c) It was understood that pre 2010 assurance might be more difficult
ACTION: and take longer to attain, and the Committee discussed the use of
Chris Aujard the detailed logs provided for the Court cases as evidence for
Deloitte.
(d)
It was agreed that the Linklaters paper was too long and that the
language needed to be clearer to enable it to be understood and
accepted by a reasonable person if it were in the public domain.
ACTION:
Mark Davies The Committee agreed that both pieces of advice would benefit from
a contextual document to explain the narrative of the past few years.
The Committee agreed that the Linklaters advice and Deloitte report
ACTION: would not be disseminated at this point but the Business would
Belinda Crowe consider when it might want to use the documents and the
contextual piece over the next months.
PS 14/11 EX GRATIA AND SETTLEMENT PAYMENTS UNDER THE
SCHEME
(a) The Committee were provided with advice on ex gratia scheme
payments and a briefing on settlement payments and Conditional
Fee Agreements (CFAs) from Chris Aujard.
(b) The Committee agreed that ex gratia payments were not suitable for
the Scheme.
(c) The Committee discussed the CFA and the issue that some sub
ACTION: postmaster may be including their advisors fees in their claim against
Belinda Crowe the Business. The Committee agreed that it should be made clear at
the Working Group that this was not acceptable and never envisaged
ACTION: under the scheme. The Business was asked to consider having a
Belinda Crowe conversation with Anthony Hooper about the problem as the scheme
cannot be seen as a way for advisors to make money
(d) The Committee discussed that at this point it needed to retain the
ability to settle with sub postmasters outside the mediation scheme,
until the future of the scheme became clearer. But no action was
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required at this point.
PS 14/12 THE ROLEOF SECOND SIGHT
(a) The Committee received a paper on the options to support Second
Sight or reduce their role in supporting the Scheme.
(b) Belinda Crowe explained that Anthony Hooper was happy with the
quality of the Post Office investigations and reports, although thought
we should be me strident at times. He has challenged the quality and
asked Second Sight to rewrite several reports, however until he
deems that they are not performing their role it is unlikely that we will
be able to dispense with them.
ACTION: (c) Belinda Crowe explained that a Second Sight’s report was due to be
Chris Aujard discussed at the Working Group this week. The Committee asked
that the Business be ready to discuss exit options with Second Sight.
(d) Mark Davies was asked to produce reactive communication line to be
ACTION: used in the event of Second Sight or JFSA walking away from the
Mark Davies Working Group and generating media.
PS 14/13 CLOSURE/ACCELERATED COMPLETION OF THE SCHEME
(a) The Committee considered a paper on the options for the closure of
the Scheme and for the acceleration of its completion.
(b) Belinda Crowe explained that if only 80? Of the 150? Cases in the
scheme had provided questionnaires with enough evidence to
investigate. She believed that if all the cases could be given a
deadline for submitting their questionnaires, and the work could be
investigated by the Post Office, the Business could get this
completed by the summer?
(c) The Committee agreed that, subject to a satisfactory outcome from
ACTION: the Deloitte assurance assessment, the Programme Team should
Chris Aujard/ develop an implementation plan based on Option 2 — to continue to
Belinda Crowe investigate cases but bring it within the control of the Post Office.
(d) The Committee asked the Business enough resource was allocated
ACTION: to the Project. Belinda Crowe agreed to consider the resource after
Belinda Crowe the Working Group meeting on the 1° May.
PS14/14 DATE OF NEXT MEETING
The date of next meeting of the Committee to be agreed after the
Working Group meeting on the 1** May
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PS 14/15 CLOSE
There being no further business, the meeting closed.
POST OFFICE LIMITED
PROJECT SPARROW SUB-COMMITTEE
ACTIONS LIST
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No.
ACTION
BY WHOM
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PSI