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From: Patrick BourkeI
Sent: Mon 14/09/2015 12 14 PM (UTC)
To: Jane Hillf”
Ce: Mark R Davi lark
Underwood Melanie
Corfieldf ie Munb
Subject: RE: EDM
Attachment: 150912 EMD Letters - final.docx
Jane
Herewith final clean version. It only needs to be tweaked to reflect the MP to whom it is being sent and their email address, as well
as refer to how they were contacted last Friday.
Tassume (but pls shout if wrong!) that your team will be sending out since you spoke to them late last week ?
Many thanks
Patrick
-----Original Message-----
From: Jane Hill
Sent: 14 September 2015 12:21
To: Patrick Bourke
Ce: Mark R Davies; Mark Underwood1:; Melanie Corfield; Martine Munby
Subject: RE: EDM
Sorry - here it is.
J
Jane Hill I Head of Public Affairs
Post Office Ltd, Finsbury Dials, 20 Finsbury Street, London EC2Y 9AQ
-----Original Message-----
From: Patrick Bourke
Sent: 14 September 2015 12:12
To: Jane Hill
Ce: Mark R Davies; Mark Underwood1: Melanie Corfield; Martine Munby
Subject: RE: EDM
Can w attach ? I have also seen a typo which I am correcting.
-----Original Message-----
From: Jane Hill
Sent: 14 September 2015 12:10.
To: Patrick Bourke
Ce: Mark R Davies; Mark Underwood1; Melanie Corfield; Martine Munby
Subject: RE: EDM.
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Looks good - very small tweak to second para of second page.
J
Jane Hill I Head of Public Affairs
Post Office Ltd, Finsbury Dials, 20 Finsbury Street, London EC2Y 9AQ
-----Original Message-----
From: Patrick Bourke
Sent: 14 September 2015 11:50
To: Jane Hill
Cc: Mark R Davies; Mark Underwood1; Melanie Corfield; Martine Munby
Subject: RE: EDM
Importance: High
Jane - thanks.
As it happens, the tweak which I felt necessary to reflect the terms of the EDM were not difficult to accommodate and, as such, my
further changes are modest in number and extent.
Here is, then, the final version subject to the approval of this copy list (which would be great to have as soon as poss).
Once that is done, what is the plan, please, for communicating it to relevant MPs (noting that each will be slightly different
depending on whether we spoke/emailed/voicemailed them on Friday ?
Best wishes
Patrick
-----Original Message-----
From: Jane Hill
Sent: 14 September 2015 10:07
To: Patrick Bourke
Ce: Mark R Davies; Mark Underwood 1; Melanie Corfield; Martine Munby
Subject: FW: EDM
Hi Patrick
I think you're holding the final draft of this letter. In addition to Mark D's amends, please could you make the attached amends to
the first para.
Many thanks
Jane Hill I Head of Public Affairs
Post Office Ltd, Finsbury Dials, 20 Finsbury Street, London EC2Y 9AQ
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-----Original Message-----
From: Martine Munby
Sent: 14 September 2015 09:59
To: Jane Hill
Subject: FW: EDM
This is the latest draft - Patrick was going to amend further this morning.
M
-----Original Message-----
From: Mark Underwood!
Sent: 12 September 2015 18:06
To: Mark R Davies
Ce: Melanie Corfield; Patrick Bourke; Martine Munby; Rodric Williams
Subject: RE: EDM
Thanks Mark - I have reflected all of your amends in the attached.
Is everyone else happy? If so, we can start getting this letter out on Monday. Patrick deserves the credit as I have pretty much lifted
his letter to Iain Wright in its entirety.
Mark
Mark Underwood
int Review and Mediation Scheme
coool Original Message-----
From: Mark R Davies
Sent: 12 September 2015 10:07
To: Mark Underwood 1
Ce: Melanie Corfield; Patrick Bourke; Martine Munby; Rodric Williams
Subject: Re: EDM
All
First of all: Mark, thank you for this: excellent.
only have a few comments:
- Lagree about using the ref to the mediation scheme (your 3 paras at top)
- in next para try to get "despite this being detrimental to our position" in the para
- suggest we lose the third para of the criminal cases section: about "do not believe inquiry appropriate": I want to avoid idea we are
's "not a question for us to rule on but..." should be public line
"resisting" an inquiry - it's
Similarly would lose the third sentence of the next para beginning "no detail has been given..."
That's all from me.
M
Mark Davies
Communications and Corporate Affairs Director Post Office Ltd
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> On 11 Sep 2015, at 15:28, Mark Underwood]
>
> Hi All,
>
> Please find attached a draft letter for those sponsors of the EDM. It is significantly longer than I first thought it would be. This is
because:
>
> - [have set out a brief history of the Scheme as I fear not all sponsors knowledge of it will be that in depth.
>
> - I think it needed to address the points cited in the EDM, whilst also including the points made in the IW letter -from which this
is largely based.
>
> Mark
>
> Mark Underwood
> Complaint Review and Mediation Scheme
>t
D nena Original Message-----
> From: Mark R Davies
> Sent: 11 September 2015 12:13
> To: Mark Underwood!
> Cc: Melanie Corfield; Patrick Bourke; Martine Munby; Rodric Williams
> Subject: Re: EDM
>
> Many thanks. As we've made contact with each let's aim to consider a letter to go on Monday.
>
>
> Mark Davies
> Communications and Corporate Affairs Director Post Office Ltd
>> On 11 Sep 2015, at 12:08, Mark Underwood]!
>
>> Hi Mark,
>>
>> I have spoken to Patrick, I will have a go at drafting the letter.
>
>> Mark
>
>> Mark Underwood
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: Mark Underwood!
>> Sent: 11 September 2015 11:26
>> To: Mark R Davies; Melanie Corfield; Patrick Bourke; Martine Munby;
>> Rodric Williams
>> Subject: RE: EDM
>
>> Hi Mark,
>
>> [ have pasted in some relevant bullets under each point in the
>> attached, which should help in forming the basis for any script or
>> letter. Let me know if you need anything else mark
>>
>> Mark Underwood
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‘iew and Mediation Scheme
Original Message-
>> From: Mark R Davies
>> Sent: 11 September 2015 10:41
>> To: Melanie Corfield; Mark Underwood 1; Patrick Bourke; Martine Munby;
>> Rodric Williams
>> Subject: EDM.
>
>> I've gone through the EDM and made comments/rebuttal for use in calls or letters with MPs.
>>
>> Please can you (Patrick, mark, rod) refine and send back asap?
>
>> Thanks
>> Mark
>
>> That this House notes with concern that a number of postmasters have
>> been forced to pay back thousands of pounds, or have been prosecuted
>> or imprisoned, solely on the basis of questionable data indicating
>> cash shortfalls from the Post Office Horizon computer system
>> introduced in 2000;
>
>> THIS FUNDAMENTALLY INCORRECT. NO PROSECUTION HAS BEEN TAKEN FORWARD WITHOUT SUFFICIENT
EVIDENCE IN ORDER TO MEET THE CODE OF PROSECUTORS TEST. PROSECUTIONS WERE NOT AND NEVER HAVE
BEEN TAKEN FORWARD ON THIS BASIS AND WE WOULD URGE MPS TO AGREE TO OUR REQUEST TO MEET TO
SET THIS OUT.
>
>> further notes that the BBC Panorama investigation on 17 August 2015,
>> entitled Trouble at the Post Office, demonstrated the damaging effect
>> this has had on the lives of the postmasters involved:
>
>> WE ARE SORRY THAT SOME PEOPLE BELIEVE THEY HAVE BEEN UNFAIRLY TREATED AND HAVE GONE TO
ENORMOUS LENGTHS TO INVESTIGATE THEIR CONCERNS. THERE IS HOWEVER NO EVIDENCE TO SUPPORT THE
CLAIMS BEING MADE. WE WOULD BE PREPARED TO SHARE THE EVIDENCE WE HAVE IN THESE CASES IN
CONFIDENCE WITH ANY MP AND URGE THEM TO AGREE TO THIS OFFER.
>>
>> acknowledges that the report by forensic accountants Second Sight
>> into claims many sub-postmasters were wrongly accused raises serious
>> questions about the integrity of the Horizon system;
>
>> THIS IS INCORRECT: SECOND SIGHT FOUND NO SYSTEMIC FLAWS WITH OUR ATSTEM AND ATTEIBUTED
LOSSES IN BRANXH TO HUMAN ERROR - REGRETTAVLY ON SOME OCCASIONS THIS INVOLVES DISHONEST
ACTION.
>
>> disappointment with the dismissive response from the Post Office to
>> the findings of the Second Sight report:
>
>> POST OFFICE HAS GONE TO ENORMOUS LENGTHS TO INVESTIFATE COMPLAINTS. WE SET UP AN INQUIRY,
INVITEd PEOPLE TO MAKE COMPLAINTS, PAID FOR THEM TO GRT INDEPENDENT ADVICE, SET UP A MEDIATION.
SCHEME ANS HAVE NOW MEDIATED OR SET UP MEETINFA WITH ALL BUY 6 OF THOSE WITHOUT COURT
JUDGEMENTA WHO CAME FORWARD.
>
>> notes the concerns raised by the Business, Innovation and Skills
>> Committee in the last Parliament in a letter to the Secretary of
>> State for Business, Innovation and Skills, dated 17 March 2015, about
>> the approach of the Post Office to the subsequent mediation scheme;
>
>> THE COMMITTEE ASKED US TO MAKE EFFORTS TO PROGRESS THE MEDIATION SCHEME. WE HAVE DONE SO.
X CASES HAVE BEEN RSOLCED AND X ARE SCHEDULED FOR MEDIATOON.
>>
>> notes the Prime Minister's comment on 1 July 2015, Official Report, column 1477, that the internal inquiry by thePost Office has
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not satisfied many hon. Members on both sides of the House; commends the work of the former hon. Member for North Hampshire,
James Arbuthnot, for consistently raising this important issue in the last Parliament; and urges the Government to establish a full
independent judicial inquiry.
>
>> Mark Davies
>> Communications and Corporate Affairs Director Post Office Ltd
>>
>> Mobile: {GRO
> <150911 EMD Letters DRAFT.docx>