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From: Alwen Lyons[/O=MMS/OU=EXCHANGE ADMINISTRATIVE GROUP
(FYDIBOHF23SPDLT)/CN=RECIPIENTS/CN=ALWEN.LYONS648EE5C4-F2A8-40E2-9F55-
1B9B1E4F6D52]
Sent: Fri 23/05/2014 2:46:49 PM (UTC)
To: Chris Aujardf
Subject: RE: here are the draft minutes in confidence
Thanks
Alwen
Alwen Lyons I Company Secretary
@) = 148 Old Street, LONDON, EC1V 9HQ
yy
From: Chris Aujard
Sent: 23 May 2014 15:16
To: Alwen Lyons
Cc: David Oliver1; Belinda Crowe
Subject: RE: here are the draft minutes in confidence
And my comment are set out below as well...
From: Alwen Lyons
Sent: 23 May 2014 11:57
To: Belinda Crowe; Chris Aujard
Cc: David Oliver1
Subject: RE: here are the draft minutes in confidence
thanks
From: Belinda Crowe
Sent: 23 May 2014 11:55
To: Alwen Lyons; Chris Aujard
Cc: Belinda Crowe; David Oliver1
Subject: RE: here are the draft minutes in confidence
Comments from me but Chris will need to agree. We are going to be speaking shortly.
Best wishes
Belinda
Belinda Crowe
148 Old Street, LONDON, EC1V 9HQ.
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From: Alwen Lyons
Sent: 23 May 2014 11:02
To: Chris Aujard; Belinda Crowe
Subject: here are the draft minutes in confidence
It’s a bit smoke and mirrors but here are the minutes, comments asap please
ACTION:
Mark Davies
ACTION:
General Counsel
ACTION:
Board Sparrow SC
ACTION:
Belinda Crowe
ACTION:
General Counsel/
Belinda Crowe
Mark Davies
(a)
(b)
(c)
(d)
(e)
(f)
The Board noted the Chief Executive’s report and discussed the
following specific items:
SEPARTION
The CEO reported a meeting with Moya Greene CEO of Royal Mail
Group who was concerned about the separation of the two
businesses. To ensure any potential problems are understood she
has asked David Ryan to have a look at separation in the context of
Business Transformation. Paula Vennells explained that the business
may need a COO role whilst separation was finalised and was
considering possible options for that role
NFSP CONFERENCE
The CEO told the Board that she had received good feedback from
the NFSP conference and that the relationship was in a different
place than last year. Richard Callard explained that the conference
had challenged the Minister regarding Government Services work,
especially DVLA and POCA.
CURRENT ACCOUNT
The Bank Of Ireland had agreed to extend the current account to an
additional 100 branches, but the Business were asking for an
additional 500.
BBC DOCUMENTARY
The Business had agreed the filming of a BBC documentary to be
aired in the spring. The CEO recognised that any such work had an
element of risk but the Business had been reassured by the editorial
constraints negotiated by Mark Davies. The Board asked the CEO to
ascertain if the broadcast could be timed for after the election. The
CEO offered to circulate a brief and film trainer to the Board
SPARROW
Chris Aujard and Belinda Crowe joined the meeting.
It was reported that the draft executive summary of the Horizon
Assurance Review prepared by Deloitte had been circulated to the
Board. Chris advised that it was anticipated that the full Review would
be available to the Business on Friday 23 May and that he would
circulate it to the full Board as soon as possible but only when he was
satisfied with its drafting and the clarity of expression; it was agreed
that he would escalate within Deloitte if he had concerns about the
quality of the product. The Chairman stressed the importance of this
Review and the need for it to give the Board assurance that there
were (if that be the case) no issues with the system; the need for it to
be written clearly so that it could be used to give assurance to a wider
audience was also stressed. The Review would be considered at the
next Board Sparrow Sub Committee (BSSC).
The CEO reported that she and the General Counsel had met Sir
Anthony Hooper to understand his appetite for changing the scheme.
Sir Anthony Hooper stressed that the Post Office had agreed to the
mediation scheme and believed they now needed to let it run over the
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next 12-18 months. With this in mind the Chairman asked the BSSC
to decide whether there was an option to change the scheme, before
the first case was mediated, which could be as early as the next 4-8
weeks.
The General Counsel explained that 10 cases, where the claimant is
an existing sub postmaster, had already been resolved outside the
scheme at very low cost to the Business. The team were continuing to
identify (and were continuing their attempts to resolve) cases under
the “business as usual” processes — this process included making
settlement payments, where doing so wass unlikely to set precedents
or create problems with either the Working Group or the network. It
was possible that the first case going through the scheme could also
be settled prior to mediation.
The Board asked for a paper to the BSSC explaining the caseload,
including the original number of cases, those already resolved
outside the scheme and an assessment based on information
available (as only 22 have been fully investigated) as to how many
cases have so far been identified which could potentially be settled
under “business as usual” without going to mediation. The paper
should identify the number of criminal cases which Post Office is
unlikely to agree to mediate and highlight how many applications in
the Scheme cite issues which relate specifically to the Horizon
system.
The CFO explained the cost to the Business of the Sparrow was
running at circa £700k a month, excluding payments to claimants.
This expenditure was in line with the budget but still a challenge for
the Business.
The Chairman asked that the next BSSC to consider:
« the options available for scheme
* how cases could be removed from the Scheme into BAU,
based on a narrow definition of Horizon and how this would be
explained to the sub postmasters and other stakeholders.
« the likely response from Sir Anthony Hooper, JFSA and
Second Sight to any change
« PR scenario planning for all the options being considered