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Agenda
Post Office Board Agenda (CCRC meeting)
Thursday 19 August 2021 09:00 — 10:30 hrs Microsoft Teams
Meeting/ Finsbury Dials
Ben Tidswell (inthe I © Zarin Patel (NED) © Ben Foat (General Counsel) © Veronica Branton (Company
Chair) Secretary)
‘* Tom Cooper (NED) © Rodric Williams (Head of Legal - I ¢ Richard Taylor (Group Corporate
Historical Matters) Affairs, Brand and
Communications Director)
Alan Watts (Herbert Smith Nick Vamos (Peters & Peters
Freehills) Solicitors LLP)
* Eleri Wones (BEIS) * Lucie Lambert (General Counsel -
UKG!)
Apologies: Tim Parker (Chairman), Ken McCall (SID), Carla Stent (NED), Lisa Harrington (NED), Elliot Jacobs (NED), Saf Ismail
(NED), Nick Read (CEO), Al Cameron (CFO)
4 United Kingdom, London (Toll)
Conference ID: 320 102 417#
oe RP ead se eS es II
1 Welcome and Conflicts of Interest? Noting Chairman
2. Minutes Approval Chairman
Minutes from 12" August 2021
3. Criminal Cases Update Discussion Nick Vamos
4. Overturned Convictions Approval Alan Watts
Interim payments — decision required on 15 further interim
payments applications
5. Historical Shortfall Scheme Noting Alan Watts
Update on progress
6. Three Month Key Activity Timeline Discussion Alan Watts/ Nick
Vamos
7. Any Other Business Noting All
2 The Minutes from the CCRC meeting held on 05" August 2021 and action log will be carried over to the next
scheduled meeting.
STRICTLY CONFIDENTIAL
CCRC Meeting - 19 August 2021-19/08/21 1 of 138
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2.1 Minutes from 12th August 2021
POST OFFICE LIMITED BOARD MEETING 2.1
Strictly Confidential and Subject to Legal Privilege - DO NOT FORWARD
MINUTES OF A MEETING OF THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS OF POST OFFICE LIMITED HELD ON THURSDAY 12
AUGUST 2021 AT 20 FINSBURY STREET, LONDON EC2Y 9AQ AT 15.00 HRS*
Present:
Ben Tidswell Non-Executive Director (BT) (in the Chair)
Tom Cooper Non-Executive Director (TC)
Zarin Patel Non-Executive Director (ZP)
Alisdair Cameron Group Chief Financial Officer (AC)
Saf Ismail Non-Executive Director (SI)
In attendance:
Veronica Branton ‘Company Secretary (VB)
Ben Foat Group General Counsel (BF)
Rodric Williams Head of Legal — Historical Matters Legal (RW)
Alan Watts Herbert Smith Freehills (AW)
Nick Vamos Peters & Peters Solicitors LLP (NV)
Richard Taylor Group Corporate Affairs, Brand and Communications Director (RT)
Apologies: Tim Parker (Chairman), Ken McCall (SID), Carla Stent (NED), Lisa Harrington (NED), Elliot Jacobs (NED) and Nick
Read (CEO)
Agenda Item Action
1. Welcome and Conflicts of Interest”
A quorum being present, Ben Tidswell opened the meeting. The Directors declared that they
had no conflicts of interest in the matters to be considered at the meeting in accordance
with the requirements of section 177 of the Companies Act 2006 and the Companys Articles
of Association.
2. Governance - Historical Remediation Committee (“HRC”)
Ben Tidswell welcomed everyone and explained that the meeting was being convened as a
Board meeting in advance of the Historical Remediation Committee being formally
constituted but would only take decisions within the delegated authorities envisaged for
that Committee. Everyone confirmed they were comfortable with that position.
BT invited comments on the draft terms of reference and delegated authorities and
outlined the next steps before approval would be sought from the Board.
A number of points were raised and addressed:
Zarin Patel suggested three additions to the general remit of the HRC: 1) a reference to
Value For Money (VFM); 2) Consideration of POL’s reputation in the round, including
through dealing fairly with all matters considered by the Committee and by being
transparent; and; 3) Ensuring that the Historical Matters team were resourced
properly. Al Cameron reported that we would be bringing back the budget for the
Historical Matters Business Unit; he was comfortable with a focus on VFM for the
Historical Shortfall Scheme (HSS) and in relation to interim payments but wanted to
understand what VFM meant in relation to compensation for individuals who had been
wrongly convicted and in some instances had gone to prison; he would very
uncomfortable for there to be any direction to seek to curtail compensation which
should be rightfully paid. ZP noted that in this instance it would be a question of
? Participation in the meeting was entirely via Microsoft Teams from participants’ personal addresses. In such circumstances
the Company's Articles of Association (Article 64) require that the location of the meeting be deemed as the chairman's
location. However, it was not deemed appropriate to record personal addresses on the Company record. As such, the
Registered Office is recorded as the meeting location.
? The Minutes of the meeting held on 05" August 2021 and action log will be carried over to the next scheduled meeting.
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> Meeting - 19 August 2021-19/08/21
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POST OFFICE LIMITED BOARD MEETING
Strictly Confidential and Subject to Legal Privilege - DO NOT FORWARD
finding the right balance for making fair and rapid payments while being mindful of
VFM for taxpayers’ money. It was agreed that we would come back to this topic. Tom Action:
Cooper added that obtaining VFM was a POL responsibility which rested with Nick Read executive
as the Accounting Officer. There were examples, such as the sale of the Telco business,
where the Shareholder had sought assurance on this point. Our approach to
compensation in the criminal cases ought to be similar to the approach we had taken
to working through the GLO settlement
TC thought that it ought to be possible for the HRC to approve more matters without
seeking Board approval, such as Stamps Scheme cases, test cases for the HSS and
potential oppose cases for the criminal cases, TC was also keen to have transparency
for management discretion (I.e. matters which did not strictly need to come to the HRC
for approval e.g. spend below £5m). BT agreed that it would be sensible for the HRC to
consider oppose cases which followed an established pattern, retaining the option of
escalating cases to the Board where appropriate.
AC noted that the Shareholder needed to approve “novel, contentious or repercussive”
spend and asked whether the cases we were dealing would become business as usual
and therefore part of “normal” spend. It was agreed that we should test this
interpretation with BEIS. TC noted that HMT was represented on the SteerCo Action: AC/
overseeing HSS matters and there would be another SteerCo to oversee the criminal BF
cases which should provide some comfort to the Shareholder
BT asked TC whether the ToR and DAs reflected accurately the decisions and
consultation points for the Shareholder and TC confirmed that he thought this the case
but that in any cases the Operational Agreement for the HSS was in place
Action: NV
Action: BF/
AW/ NV
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2.1
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POST OFFICE LIMITED BOARD MEETING
Strictly Confidential and Subject to Legal Privilege - DO NOT FORWARD
The draft Terms of Reference and Delegated Authorities would be revised to reflect the Action: VB
comments made and then circulated to the Board and BEIS for approval.
Criminal Cases
do: RW
It was resolved that where the figures for the more concrete components amounted to
more than £150k, the interim payment figure would as a rule of thumb remain £100k but
Action: AW
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POST OFFICE LIMITED BOARD MEETING
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below that we might consider a lower interim payment of, say, £75k. BT requested that
the claim summaries should include the figures for the more concrete claims (shortfalls
repaid, loss of remuneration/stigma, exemplary and aggravated damages, interest due on
these sums and legal costs) so it was easy to see whether the £150k threshold for the full
£100k interim payment was met.
To do: BT/
VB
5. Historical Shortfall Scheme
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POST OFFICE LIMITED BOARD MEETING 2.1
It was resolved that:
© as part of the settlement claim letters for the Historical Shortfall Scheme each
Applicant would receive an index listing the key documentation on which the offer was
based/key supporting documents, explaining that the Applicant could request one or
all if they wished
© the updated Shortfall only test case packs could be provided to the Independent
Advisory Panel
© the interest calculation for shortfall payments would be calculated from the date at
which the shortfall had been repaid and not from the mid-point. A Mid-point
calculation would be required where we did not know when the shortfall had occurred
© the amendment to the Independent Advisory Panel’s Terms of Reference to allow the
inclusion of Distress and Injury awards would be recommended to the Board as follows:
“in formulating its recommended offer, the Panel may recommend the making of an
offer to the postmaster forthe whole-or part of th they-have-claimed if, guided
by broad considerations of fairness, the Panel considers that doing so would produce a
fair result in all the circumstances of the particular case. For the avoidance of doubt, in
doing so, the Panel’s discretion will not be confined solely to the specific heads of
Consequential Loss claimed by the postmaster but will take into account any facts and
matters which the Panel considers will produce a fair result on the facts of a particular
case.”
Any Other Business
Meetings
The timings of meetings of 19"* and 26" August would be reviewed because of diary Tedo: VB
clashes.
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2.1 Minutes from 12th
POST OFFICE LIMITED BOARD MEETING
Strictly Confidential and Subject to Legal Privilege - DO NOT FORWARD
Suspension payments
Zarin Patel asked when suspension payments would be revisited and Ben Foat explained
that there had been a number of meetings on this topic which would be considered again
at the next scheduled Board Meeting.
There being no further business Ben Tidswell declared the meeting closed at 4.20 pm.
Chairman Date
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