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Post Office Investigations
Review 5 May 2021
Sarah Gray, Group Legal Ben Foat, Group General
Director Counsel
The GE is asked to note and discuss the contents of this paper and approve seeking funding,
via the Historical Matters Committee, for a review to be performed into how Post Office conducts
its investigations.
« None
Be
A total of 44 historical prosecutions brought by Post Office have been overturned. There
are a further 660 Potential Future Appellants (“PFAs”). Calls for a standalone Public Inquiry
or for the terms of Sir Wyn’s Inquiry to be expanded continue.
2. Although Post Office will no longer bring private prosecutions, it will still perform a variety
of investigations and co-operate with Law Enforcement Agencies.
Post Office has, a new Group Investigations Policy (see Annexure 1) and a number of other
connected policies including but not limited to Whistleblowing, Co-operating with Law
Enforcement Agencies, Postmaster Complaints and Postmaster Termination Decisions.
6. We expect the review to take 4-6 weeks to complete, at a cost of c£150k.
Confidential
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Questions addressed
1. Why is it necessary for Post Office to review how it conducts investigations?
2. How do we propose to take this forward?
3. How long will the review take? How much will it cost and what will the work product cover?
Report
4. 42 criminal appeals were heard by the Court of Appeal Criminal division (“the CACD”) during
a four day hearing which commenced on 22 March 2021. Post Office opposed only 3 of the
42 appeals. The Judgment, which was handed down on 23 April 2021, found 39 of the 42
convictions to be unsafe, with their appeals succeeding on limbs 1 and 2!. It concluded that
“POL’s failures of investigation and disclosure were so egregious as to make the prosecution
of any Horizon cases an affront to the conscience of the court”
5. In addition to the 39 convictions found to be unsafe on 22 March, 5 Crown Court Appellants
were acquitted in December 2020. There are also 660 Potential Future Appellants? (“PFAs”).
6. Criminal convictions being overturned en-masse has and will continue to attract political
and media attention. This will heighten if malicious prosecution claims? are made and the
Justice Sub-Postmasters Alliance (“JFSA”) continue to challenge the lawfulness* of
Government's refusal to pause the current non-statutory Post Office Horizon IT Inquiry, re-
establish it as a Statutory Inquiry and take account of historical prosecutions.
Indeed, the Prime Minister, Boris
Johnson tweeted “I welcome the Court of Appeal’s decision to overturn the convictions of
39 former sub-postmasters in the Horizon dispute, an appalling injustice which has had a
devastating impact on these families for years. Lessons should and will be learn to ensure
this never happens again".
1 Ground 1, that the reliability of Horizon data was essential to the prosecution and, in the light of all the evidence including
Fraser J’s findings in the High Court, it was not possible for the trial process to be fair (“category 1 abuse”); and Ground 2, that
the evidence, together with Fraser J’s findings, shows that it was an affront to the public conscience for the appellants to face
prosecution (“category 2 abuse”)
2 These individuals were prosecuted and convicted by POL or RMG pre-separation; POL’s case relied wholly or partly on data derived from Horizon; and were
prosecuted / convicted between 1999/2000 and 2013.
3 The management and funding of which is subject to separate discussions with Government
“Via Judicial Review
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9. Post Office has already:
« Substantively completed a Post-Conviction Disclosure Exercise® (“The PCDE”);
« Developed a new Group Investigations Policy to establish minimum operating
standards for the management of internal investigations throughout the Post Office
Group; and
e Implemented a Co-operation with Law Enforcement Agencies Policy (“CLEP”)
which confirms Post Office’s continued commitment to supporting Law Enforcement
Agencies in the prevention, detection, investigation and potential prosecution of alleged
offences but states Post Office will no longer conduct private prosecutions itself.
10. Although Post Office will no longer conduct private prosecutions, it will still need to perform
investigations generally. These include but are not limited to investigations of suspected
criminal misconduct, Whistleblowing disclosures, and personnel issues (grievances etc).
11
12,
13
5 To disclose any material which has come to light and might cast doubt on the safety of a conviction; and where there is a real prospect that further inquiry might
reveal such material, making that inquiry.
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14. If approved and once the review is complete, the findings will be shared with the
Organisational Design team, so that any necessary changes can be considered holistically.
Appendix 1 - Draft Group Investigations Policy
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