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POST OFFICE LIMITED
AUDIT, RISK & COMPLIANCE COMMITTEE REPORT
Title: Postmaster Policies Meeting Date: I 26 January 2021
Tim Perkins, Service and Support
Optimisation Director and
Amanda Jones, Retail and
Franchise Network Director
Jo Milton, Senior Operational
Author: Improvement Manager
Sponsor:
Input Sought: Decision
The Committee is asked to approve:
i. the three new Postmaster policies set out in the Appendices, namely:
e Network Monitoring and Audit Support Policy;
e Postmaster Account Support Policy;
* Postmaster Accounting Dispute Resolution Policy;
ii. that, moving forwards, these policies be reviewed and approved annually by the Risk &
Compliance Committee (RCC) only.
Previous Governance Oversight
RCC on 12 January 2021
Executive Summary
Following the Group Litigation Order (GLO), Post Office set about ensuring that its processes
complied with the findings of the GLO.
The focus on processes has delivered a large number of changes to the support that Post Office
offers postmasters over the last 20 months. However, this work has mainly been done without
updating the policies that sit over the processes. This has often been the case because no policy
existed in the first instance or the policy was so dated that it was irrelevant to the processes
undertaken pre or post the GLO.
Having policies in place for the support Post Office provides postmasters will bring Post Office in
line with best practice franchise businesses. The purposes of the policies are to provide guidance,
set down principles and highlight risk areas, while also ensuring that Post Office is able to support
postmasters effectively and compliantly with the GLO.
As part of an overall review of postmaster support policy requirements, this paper seeks approval
for three new postmaster policies to reflect how Post Office will provide support to postmasters in
relation to their branch accounting. There were previously no policies in this area.
Questions addressed
1. What policies are required to support the changes made to postmaster support following the
GLO?
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2. What policies have recently been developed and now require approval?
3. What further policy work is required to ensure there is a full complement of postmaster support
policies in place and how will these be continually reviewed in the future?
Report
1. Following the Common Issues Judgment and Horizon Issues Judgment in the GLO, Post Office
focused on improving processes to ensure compliance with the outcomes of the judgments.
2. Whilst process improvements were delivered, Post Office has identified that there was an
absence of overarching policies for these processes to sit under. Where policies previously
existed, they were often very aged and did not bear relevance to the processes that Post Office
had improved.
3. As such, Post Office has set about developing a set of postmaster policies across key areas of
postmaster support.
4. Post Office has identified that a comprehensive suite of postmaster policies is required to
demonstrate and ensure GLO compliant support to postmasters in the following areas:
Network Monitoring and Audit Support
Network Cash and Stock Management and Transaction Corrections
Postmaster Account Support
Postmaster Accounting Dispute Resolution
Postmaster Contractual Performance
Postmaster Suspension
Postmaster Termination
Postmaster Appeals
Postmaster Accountability
Postmaster Complaint Handling
vr se-pange
5. The policies relating to Contractual Performance, Postmaster Suspension and Termination are
already approved and in use.
6. This paper seeks approval of the policies relating to Network Monitoring and Audit Support,
Postmaster Account Support, and Postmaster Accounting Dispute Resolution. These policies
can be found in the appendices to this paper.
7. The Network Monitoring and Audit Support policy sets out Post Office’s network monitoring
principles which aim to support postmasters with accounting practices, prevent postmasters
from suffering discrepancies and protect both postmasters and Post Office from possible
losses.
8. The Postmaster Account Support policy sets out how Post Office will notify postmasters pro-
actively when an accounting discrepancy has occurred and how it will offer support to help
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postmasters understand the reason(s) for any discrepancy. The policy also sets out how Post
Office could deal with the recovery of losses if the loss is established (following investigation
and/or acceptance by the postmaster).
9. The Postmaster Accounting Dispute Resolution policy sets out how Post Office will investigate
and resolve any accounting disputes raised by postmasters.
10.The remaining postmaster support policies identified above (Network Cash and Stock
Management and Transaction Corrections, Postmaster Appeals, Postmaster Accountability and
Postmaster Complaint Handling) will be presented to the RCC in March, along with an
overarching postmaster support document that links all the postmaster support policies and
processes.
Next Steps & Timelines
11. Following approval of the three policies, Post Office will ensure that:
e all relevant teams are fully trained on the new policies by the end of February 2021;
e the policies will be reviewed annually, for approval at RCC, beginning March 2021; and
¢ an overarching postmaster support document, linking all the relevant policies and
processes, will be prepared for review by the end of March 2021.
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Appendices
1. Network Monitoring and Audit Support Policy
2. Postmaster Account Support Policy
3. Postmaster Accounting Dispute Resolution Policy
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