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From: Jane MacLeod!
Sent: Sat 14/05/2016 4:36:03 PM (UTC)
To: Patrick Bou jark
Underwood Rodric
Williams}
Subject: Fwd: Post Office - Chairman's review - Confidential & legally privileged.
Please see email from Tim below.
I think it would be helpful to be able to respond with the status of each of the 8(?) actions that were being carried
forward, a description of the remaining work and the expected completion time.
To this end, we should consider the work being done by Deloitte and how far we want to go to address the
questions posed by Jonathan. Given the litigation, I suspect there is even less we are going to be able to say
about the results of the further work, so we need to consider the value to be obtained from each step.
Having collated the information for Tim, can we please consider my question - perhaps with Jonathan. This is not
to say that the Deloitte work should not continue, as it may prove to be useful in the litigation - although we
need to make sure it is properly focussed for that objective.
Let's pick up on Monday.
Jane MacLeod
General Counsel
Sent from my iPad
Begin forwarded message:
From: Tim Parke
To: Jane MacLeod:
Subject: Re: Post Office - Chairman's review
Thank you Jane. I think there will soon be frustration at the time this is taking (indeed I am also
beginning to get somewhat frustrated) So what is now the projected timetable for completion on
the components of the action list?
Best
Tim
Tim Parker
Chairman
National Trust
POL00241554
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enor Gardens, London, SW1W_ 0DH
Chairman
Post Office Limited
Chairman
Samsonite International SA
Westerring 17, B-9700 Oudenaarde, Belgium
On Fri,
wrote:
May 13, 2016 at 10:13 AM -0700, "Jane MacLeod"
Dear Tim
Here is
Review
my regular fortnightly update on the progress of your review and the litigation.
Helpline - In relation to the allegation that our Helpline may have provided incorrect advice to
subpostmasters which resulted in a loss to the accounts, Bond Dickinson (the external firm
conducting the work) has now completed its investigations. Although some investigations were
limited because certain records are no longer available and there were inaccuracies in the
information provided by complainants, their draft report reveals that there is no evidence to
support the allegations that have been made. We are currently reviewing the report ahead of
sharing it with Jonathan Swift to seek his view as to whether it sufficiently discharges his
recommendation in this area, but we are confident that it should.
Horizon System — We have had further meetings with Deloitte in relation to the extent of the
work necessary to discharge Jonathan’s 3 recommendations on the testing of Horizon, and they
have begun work on the substantive phase of that work. It is, by its nature, an iterative process
in that, dependent on early results, further decisions then need to be made on whether or not to
explore further. To assist us in this process, I have asked the new Chief Information Officer, Rob
Houghton, to review the process undertaken by Deloitte, to sense-check these further decisions.
Our next meeting with Deloitte takes place on 20 May.
Suspense Accounts — You will recall that Deloitte are also conducting the work, into the
existence and nature of the relationship between POL’s suspense accounts and specific branch
accounts over the relevant period. This a materially different exercise to the IT testing, and
understand that most of the relevant accounting processes were/are based paper records and
manual reconciliations. We will shortly be having a specific meeting with Deloitte to discuss
their progress on this and will be keeping Al Cameron briefed on those discussions.
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e — Prosecution Practice — Jonathan Swift has confirmed that Brian Altman QC can limit his initial
review to those 19 cases presenting the specific features of double charges in question, and
decide on the basis of those findings whether to extend the exercise. That work is ongoing.
Litigation
As I indicated in my last update, we are in the process of preparing a short paper for the May Board
which will include, at a high level, a summary of the legal claim, the likely timescales, and our initial
approach for its management. I have briefed the GE today on these matters.
As ever, should you have any questions, do give me a call.
Kind regards,
Jane
Jane MacLeod
General Counsel
Ground Floor
20 Finsbury Street
LONDON
EC2Y 9AQ
Mobile number