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POST OFFICE LIMITED
BOARD REPORT
Title: Operational Improvement Plan Meeting Date: I 08 April 2020
. I Julie Thomas, Operations . Al Cameron, Group Chief
iaainaats Director ‘ i ‘siehlcia Finance Officer
Input Sought: Noting and Discussion
The Board is asked to:
I. NOTE the progress made in updating Operational processes since the Common Issues
Judgment in March 2019 and the forward plan.
Il. NOTE our current contractual position post-GLO and the recommendations to
regularise the position during 20/21 and beyond.
III. NOTE the current dispute process within new Operational processes and DISCUSS
the work in progress to introduce independence to the decision making process.
IV. NOTE the proposed governance structure for this work.
Previous Governance Oversight
e GE discussion - Contracts and Operations Modernisation 19 February 2020
e GE discussion - Contract decision paper 26 February 2020
e GE discussion - Post GLO Implementation Plan update 11 March 2020
Executive Summary
The Common Issues Judgment (CIJ) was highly critical of the way in which Post Office
previously managed its relationships with Postmasters through its contracts. Specific issues
related to shortfalls and discrepancies, which were routinely reclaimed via deductions from
remuneration, with total reliance on the Branch Trading Statement; suspending Postmasters
without payment for several months before reaching a decision on termination or re-
instatement; and not providing sufficient training or ongoing support, including when branches
had repeatedly called the contact centre for help. This report discusses actions taken to address
these issues. A tabular breakdown of the progress to date is associated in The Reading Room.
The CIJ made various findings that re-interpret our branch agency contracts. This means our
existing contracts and those used for new Postmasters no longer reflect the true position,
creating uncertainty for both Post Office and Postmasters. This report recommends the short
and long-term actions to address the contractual position with Postmasters.
The report also discusses discrepancy and contractual disputes. A Case Review Team has been
established to manage the resolution of disputes that are not eligible for the Historical Shortfalls
scheme, although the investigative process will mirror this. Allied to this is the need for
independence in the event agreement cannot be reached. The proposal is for us to form a
formal review board who would review the available facts and data to determine if the final
decision was fair.
A Prove Case budget request for £1.17m will be governed as part of Post GLO Settlement
Programme. This is to continue the remaining Operational improvement activities, including
independent assurance for this, and the Contractual position work. A further £500k spend is
requested to deliver ongoing Horizon fixes for any identified known errors or bugs as they arise.
1
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This will be governed by a newly formed branch resilience and IT release decision group within
Business As Usual (BAU) processes.
Questions addressed
1. How far progressed is the work to review and update operational processes to address
the findings of the Common Issues Judgment and what further actions are planned?
2. What actions must we take in relation to our branch agency contracts and related
documentation in response to the Common Issues Judgment and what remaining risks
does this leave?
3. How can we ensure our dispute resolution processes within BAU include independent
oversight or assurance?
4. How does this work feed into the overall Stakeholder plan?
Report
Operational Processes
5. Operational improvements have been implemented in the past year related to on-
boarding, classroom and field training, Area Manager and back office support, transaction
corrections, discrepancy support and dispute, audit, investigations, suspensions,
terminations and loss recovery. Key processes were documented, reviewed and changed
where needed, with support from legal, to enable Post Office to operate within the terms
of its contracts as re-interpreted by the Judgment and within the overall spirit of the
Judgment.
6. Data is tracked across these processes and this indicates the improvements are
embedding well with the Year To Date (YTD) results at February 2020 being 96.5%
satisfaction for classroom and onsite training, 96% of assistance requests for balancing
discrepancies resolved, our Loss position favourable to budget at £5.6m, suspensions
averaging 9 per month YTD from 17 previously, and contract terminations at 76 YTD vs
97 prior year, although the more recent run rate would lead to an estimate of 56 p.a.
going forward. Appendix 1
7. Work in progress includes updating key Policies relating to contract performance, loss
recovery, suspension and termination, all aligned to the process improvement work. Once
complete, the updated process and policy documentation will be sense-checked by a
second legal firm, Norton Rose, in April 2020. This review will ensure the plan we put in
place to improve our operational processes is aligned to the judgment and will highlight
any gaps. It is important to note, the Common Issues Judgment made legal findings
about the contracts and made certain criticisms of Post Office's past behaviours, but
except in a few instances it was not specific about what we should do differently from an
operational perspective. Following this second legal review, an independent audit will
commence in September 2020, likely by KPMG or Grant Thornton (tbc). This will provide
external assurance that the new Operational processes are being executed in the correct
way. (£620k budget)
8. The main contention of both trials was the potential cause of discrepancies due to bugs in
the Horizon system. A new process has been established to record all IT issues within
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branches that could lead to discrepancies. These are not bugs per se, but are issues such
as screen freezes or transactions timing out, which could lead to a discrepancy if the
branch completes the transaction with the customer before properly completing the
Horizon steps. Examples of the current known errors are at Appendix 2. These issues
are largely solvable but require an ongoing Continuous Improvement budget to resolve
these via simple change requests to Fujitsu or other suppliers. (E500k Opex budget per
annum)
9. In addition, the Horizon Quick Wins project identified a number of improvements to
product flows and Horizon screens to remove the propensity for branches to make errors.
The improvements launched so far, all of which were sense-checked with branches before
being developed, have been well received by branches and the NFSP, and early indications
are that the improvements are working. For example Banking miskeys relating to
withdrawal and deposits have reduced from 43 to 16 errors per week, a 63%
improvement.
10. Other than product errors, the main causes of discrepancy or transaction corrections relate
to the cash and stamps accounting processes between Supply Chain and branches.
Stamps are the most concerning as these hold no value for Post Office until they are sold,
but for branches they become a cash value as soon as they are booked into the Horizon
system. Thus, mistakes on booking these in could cause discrepancies. A short-term fix
has been put in place to quickly identify the cause of a stock related branch discrepancy
and offer a proactive intervention with the branch.
11. Cash discrepancies are largely generated by the cash centres as pouches are found with
errors or with forged notes, generating a net £8.6m Transaction Corrections (TCs) per
annum (£6.8m branch shortage, £15.4m branch gain). An initiative is currently being
mobilised to move to single pass counting in the cash centres, removing the first step
under camera conditions where discrepancies are isolated to a branch. It is hoped this
initiative will remove the low-level disputes and thereby remove the ‘noise’ in the system.
A pilot will test that any increase in losses being written off is within manageable levels
and could be largely off-set by headcount savings within the process. A sample check will
continue to be made in the cash centres as well as Loss Prevention and Supply Chain
liaising closely on high risk branches.
12. However, a full end to end review is required of all cash and stock processes to highlight
any remaining gaps. A longer-term aspiration would be to account for physical cash and
stock off Horizon, so that the system is purely responsible for transaction accounting with
this data driving client settlement and Agent Remuneration. This work is currently planned
to commence in Q1 with a Discovery phase, with the actual work scheduled to commence
in Q4 20/21. This work would fundamentally change the way we complete Branch
Trading statements but is likely to take several years to construct an alternative
accounting system, depending on the Horizon roadmap and wider Contract changes
coming out of Contract Reform. (£500k budget required for 20/21).
Contractual Position (funding required £50k)
13. The Common Issues Judgment made various findings that reinterpret the branch agency
contracts. This means our existing contracts and the template contracts used for new
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Postmasters no longer reflect the true position, creating uncertainty for both Post Office
and Postmasters.
14. This uncertainty makes it more difficult for Post Office to take remedy action with current
Postmasters, such as recovering losses or contract termination, without taking legal
advice in each case. Additionally, there is a growing trend of disputes related to
discrepancies which Post Office believes it is entitled to recover and fully complies with
the judgment, but Postmasters are disputing these, using a broad Judgment and
settlement argument as the reason they should not be held liable. It is very difficult for
us to argue these cases without being able to refer to a document which sets out the post-
Judgment position, particularly when the Postmaster is represented by CWU, or in some
cases using Litigation specialists. Appendix 3 outlines some of the more contentious
contract decisions in progress currently.
15. It is therefore recommended that as an early priority, a general communication is sent
to all Postmasters highlighting the impact of the Judgment on their contracts. This is
anticipated to address the issue without entering into issuing a formal variation, which
would inevitably create push-back, confusion for Postmasters and delay in getting clear
advice to Postmasters who crave clarity. In the longer-term, if contracts are reviewed for
wider network or proposition related changes, these must also reflect the Judgment,
including Post Office’s requirements for conformance with cash declarations and good
operational controls. It is expected that an incentive to re-contract is likely to be needed
to achieve a full re-contracting exercise, such as was accomplished during Network
Transformation, so the activity needs to be run alongside future Network Blueprint work.
(See paragraph 19, Contract Reform).
16. Our template Mains, Locals and Subpostmaster contracts have been updated for issuing
to new Postmasters in order to reflect the Common Issues Judgment. These updates
codify the Judgment findings and do not seek to mitigate or otherwise change the contract
terms. Drafts have been produced and a final review is being completed by HSF. These
are in the process of being shared with the NFSP for comment as the only recognised
representative body for Postmasters. They will be launched alongside the planned
communication for existing Postmasters. This would mean in the event of a dispute
(paragraphs 20-22), the current contract with a clear and agreed interpretation of the
meaning of the Judgment can be used in reference to the decision rationale.
17. Justice Fraser also commented on Post Office's historical processes for entering into the
traditional Subpostmaster contract ("SPMC") prior to mid-2006, of which there
are 1,157 not on NT contracts. 781 of these are on SPSO or MSPO contracts and of these,
177 branches have Conditions of Appointment in a form we could consider to be ‘low risk’
and could therefore reasonably be excluded from a re-contracting exercise. This leaves
604 branches on SPSO or MSPO contracts, which are required on an ongoing basis in the
network, that either (i) do not have a signed Conditions of Appointment or (ii) the signed
Conditions of Appointment are in a form which indicates the onboarding procedures for
the Branch are at ‘higher risk' of not having been sufficient. We are cautious about
seeking to re-contract with this group in case of any wider business impacts and are
taking further legal advice from Chris Jeans QC.
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18. Until this advice is received and a way forward can be developed, we are currently carrying
a potential risk that our SPMC contracts cannot be enforced in these branches, creating
uncertainty about Post Office's ability to reclaim losses, suspend, terminate or enforce the
obligations on Postmasters by certain upstream clients. The operational view is that these
risks are minimal as this group has to date shown no wilful non-conformance with Post
Office's requirements. In extremis, Post Office can suspend on full remuneration or offer
12 months’ notice with pay in lieu of notice in the event of a risk to funds. A future
recommendation to deal with this outstanding risk group will be addressed in a further
paper for GE in late April.
19. A complete programme of Contract Reform is recommended but is felt to be a longer
term aspiration at the point we are in a position to set the objective for this programme.
This will require Post Office to be clear about the future of Horizon and whether we account
and settle on or off this, our future strategic partner strategy and proposition. In the
meantime, we are able to continue with the current contracts, with the clarification and
updates to reflect the Judgment as referred to in paragraphs 14 and 15.
Dispute Processes
20. Discrepancy disputes can be raised via the Branch Support Centre for accounting
discrepancies where a Tier 2 operator will investigate and attempt to resolve any issues
found with our clients. These typically relate to miskey errors where a customer's account
has been over-credited. Banks and payment services providers are happy to communicate
with customers directly to recoup these funds. The contract work has confirmed that
Postmasters are still responsible for errors by them or their assistants, so if after engaging
with clients we are still unable to recover mistakes, Postmasters may remain liable. Until
we can communicate the contractual position post-Judgment, disputes are currently
recorded and held while we work through next steps. Additionally, a Horizon change is
scheduled in April, which highlights the disputes process for branches making this easier
and more transparent for branches. Current dispute levels are measured Appendix 1
21. Contractual disputes relate to an objection to Post Office seeking to suspend or
terminate a contract or to pursue loss recovery for either current or former Postmasters.
Aligned to the proposed Historical Shortfall Scheme, in November 2019 a Case Review
team was established within Loss Prevention to quality assure any investigation for issues
post 2018 (when the Horizon system was judged, in the Horizon Issues Judgment, to be
relatively robust). This function will fully engage with the Postmaster to help them resolve
any dispute by conducting face to face meetings and providing verbal and written
explanations of the conclusion. The team will also be trained on trauma support to spot
potential signs of distress at all stages of a claim and to escalate appropriately for
additional support. The Case Review Team has successfully concluded 8 of 40 very
complex cases. Appendix 4.
22. For both discrepancy and contractual disputes, an Independent review is needed. It is
proposed that this will be a mixed representative group including NFSP, potentially a
layperson from a related field, such as the Association for Convenience Stores, a
Postmaster or retired Postmaster and Post Office. This would form a review board to
assess the facts and data to determine if the decision was fair and whether Post Office
and the Postmaster had acted ‘in good faith’.
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23. As previously agreed at GE (11'° March 2020), governance and control over the above
Operations activities will come under the Post GLO Settlement Programme, which is
managed via a Steering Group consisting of Directors for Network & Franchising,
Operations, Communications, Finance and Legal with Nick Read chairing, supported by
the Programme Director. Regular updates from this group would be reported to GE and
Board across Legal and Operational workstreams. Appendix 5
Governance Structure
24. Additional oversight of the following areas will be provided via production of a dashboard
owned by Operations covering the following:
Current disputes, their status, nature and outcome where available
Escalated disputes, their status, nature and outcomes where available
BAU (i.e. non-Historical Shortfall Scheme) settlements
Branch-related ongoing investigations which may escalate to dispute
anow
All of this activity is to have clear links into the GLO Legal workstreams including the need
for any decisions outside of agreed process or policy to come to the GE Level Steerco.
25. The Operational Governance for non-Programme activity comprises of monthly reporting
to the Operations Leadership Group chaired by Al Cameron with progress reports and
tracking KPIs provided by the Network Operations area. Spend is monitored via good
governance practices and led by the Portfolio office.
Financial Impact
26. In 2019/20, £22m budget was requested to make a number of operational and support
process changes to reflect the Common Issues Trial Judgment. This was jointly owned by
Operations and Retail. The table at Appendix 6 summarises the activities and forecast
spend of £8.8m of £12m Opex and £6.6m of £9.9m Change. Underspend in Opex is
largely due to Legal and Communications spend accounted for in the primary (£58m) GLO
budget.
27. The bid for 2021/21 includes:
Post GLO Settlement Programme - Operations workstreams:
Activity Detail Funding
required
Operational Improvements I* Independent Assurance of 2019/2020 work done to date, Gap £620k
(Paragraphs 5-7) Analysis, Internal Audit Review.
+ Embed GLO in contractual documentation/ policies
* Operations Manual
* — Policies re: Loss/Suspension/Termination & Settlement/Loss
Recovery
+ Training/Embedding
‘Stamps/Stock - strategic I Review back-office systems £500k.
(Paragraph 10) Cash and Stock/Stamps reconciliation
Contract Restatement £50k
(Paragraph 11-17)
Total £1,170k
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Operations BAU
Activity Detail Funding
required
Horizon Continuous Improvement (Paragraph I Timely fixing of Known Errors £500k
8)
‘Stamps/Stock — tactical TEC
(Opex)
Total 500k +
Risk Assessment, Mitigations & Legal Implications
Risk Mitigation
There is a risk that our Operational processes I The second independent review by NRF to
are not fully compliant with the Judgment. ensure the planned actions are appropriate
and an external audit in September to test the
execution of these changes are designed to
assure Post Office that any gaps are
understood and plans exist to address these.
There is a risk that branch losses will escalate I The recommended approach to contract re-
with Postmasters referring to the judgment as I statement will set out the reciprocal
a reason for them not being liable. responsibility regarding losses and shortfalls
for both parties.
Loss levels are being tracked on a monthly
basis and reported to the Operational
Leadership Group. (Appendix 1)
Stakeholder Implications
28. Stakeholder interest in this issue has been limited to a narrow group with a direct interest
in the case and the media. There has been little wider spill-over into more mainstream
stakeholder, though there has been significant Parliamentary interest, both from MPs and
Peers who have followed the trial and those championing the cause of claimants. In
general, concern over this issue has not been conflated with the ongoing operation of Post
Office or the services it provides through its network.
29. We have taken a pro-active approach with a limited number of stakeholders to address
the issues raised by the trial and Nick Read was due to make a speech setting out a reset
for the Post Office and its relationship with Postmasters but this was postponed due to
Coronavirus. He was also due to appear in front of the BEIS Select Committee to discuss
Horizon but this was also postponed.
30. BEIS - our responsible Department is taking a significant interest in how we plan to reset
the relationship with Postmasters. On 12" March Nick Read had a positive meeting with
the Permanent Secretary to talk through the changes we have made and the further
changes to come. We still engage with the Department and UKGI on a wide range of
issues and it is not felt that the issues raised in the trial have affected this relationship to
any great extent.
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31. Parliament - we anticipate that the Select Committee appearance will be rescheduled
and this will provide a good opportunity to set out how Post Office is taking the steps
required to reset our relationship with Postmasters and ensure the mistakes which led to
the GLO are not repeated. We anticipate that this will be well-received but still expect a
robust session at the Committee. Beyond the Committee, we continue to be subject to a
range of scrutiny from MPs and Peers with debates and questions to the government; we
continue to work with BEIS to respond to these and brief Ministers and other
Parliamentarians accordingly.
32. Media - we continue to receive media interest in the Horizon issue and expect this to
continue, albeit it is receiving less coverage in the current news environment. The CCRC’s
referral of 39 cases to the appeal courts and continuing calls from campaigners for public
inquiry are driving the main news agenda on the story. BBC’s Panorama programme is
temporarily postponed due to Covid-19 coverage but is completed and expected to be
broadcast. In addition BBC R¢4 is planning a serialised documentary programme, currently
for end of May start. Our media strategy continues to be centred on actions being taken
to address all the issues that arose from the group litigation and the events that led to it,
placing those events firmly in the past.
33. Postmasters - It is our experience, from both personal interactions and feedback from
field teams that the vast majority of postmasters are paying little or no attention to the
wider media and GLO environment and are continuing to operate their branches without
any undue concern about Horizon or the impact of GLO. It is possible though that this will
change once the Historic Shortfalls Scheme is launched as this will undoubtedly bring
these issues to their attention directly.
34. The current Covid-19 communication activity is unearthing criticism of Post Office from
Postmasters, leading to an overall concern about our relationship with them. A culture
change programme is planned across Post Office and both the GLO findings and the
current experiences will help shape the scope for this as well as the urgency within Post
Office.
Next Steps
35. April 2020 - Prove plan for the Post GLO Settlement Programme will be presented in April,
covering activities required to progress Operational Workstreams as above: Contract
Restatement, Operations Improvements, Stamps/Stock - tactical
36. April 2020 - Post GLO Settlement Programme to mobilise, regular SteerCo sessions to be
chaired by Nick Read - Operations workstreams sponsor: Julie Thomas.
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Appendix 1
network and supply chain? Are we managing Postmaster contracts effectively?
Audit Losses 18 19 Branch Churn
70 a Audits with total losses
a Fa sok
50 a Audits with total losses
to a = ® sk
oom Aucits with ota losses
2 18 "
ed 10k
ie Fy a I I 1 Audits with total losses
sk
a = ,
P23 Ph OPS PGP? PB. PS PIO PIL
BPP Pa
New suspensions No Reinstatements No == Terminations No
* £15,554 average loss at risk based audit - High average loss at audit with high losses at Farnworth (£228k),
Linacre (£114k), Felinfoel (£68k).
« £334k surplus cash returned through Branch Analysis - Branch Analysis calls returned significantly lower cash
in the period, owing to focus on stock (0.6 FTE) and supporting the Case Review Team (1 FTE).
* 56 current suspensions - Increase in the number of live suspensions by 3.
« 6 new suspensions - Suspensions at Linacre (see above), Felinfoel (see above), Buglawton (inflated cash),
Bentley (stock), Llanharan (misuse of funds, now terminated) and Seaton Burn (inflated cash, now terminated).
* 3 suspensions resolved - 3 terminations and 0 reinstatements. There are 9 pending reinstatements, but
training/onboarding scheduling is preventing the reinstatements from being resolved.
* 81 days average suspension length - Slight increase in the average suspension length.
Loss Recovery - Are we minimising financial losses to POL and the network?
1800000 Loss Prevention Agent Debt Recovery 5000000 Loss Prevention Agent Debt Recovery
ep ne 4500000
sniuteagerts-oFr 4000000
er A 3500000
000000 £ 3000000
2500000
iii 2000000
600000 1500000
eee I 1000000
veoooa il 00000
° Bees a
11600000
vA = Move mentn formes
agent deat sroiion
f
1400000
= = = sudgeted movernent
Informer agent dest
— — = Dugeted movement
inearrentagent dest
provision €
P7 P8 po Plo Pan aha
* £409k movement in total debt provisions - Former agent debt provision increased by £303k to £18.3m and
current agent debt provision increased by £106k to £2.29m
* £1,057k recoveries - Recovery made of former agent debt at Greenlands (£151k, terminated earlier in FY)
which improved former agent debt recovery performance - all other areas of debt recovery were fairly static
on previous periods.
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Appendix 1 cont’d
Requests for assistance with balan discrepancies and Transaction Correction disputes
Tier 2 - Assistance Requests . . “
a Transaction Correction Disputes
160 25 20
© A io
Resolved 1119},
Tier 2 Losses (Ek)
27 10 84 90 136 111 102 117 94 72-10 66 Escaated toCRT 4
Tier 2 Gains (£k)
s £250 160
8 £200 eo
3 0
: 2150 Bu
Fa £100 ‘0
# 0
g £50 h L 40
0 a I I
pin I © 2] FS) a I I eo proes {i6/ PL P2 PS PL PS PS P7 FO FO FIO PIL
) 1)
= Loses Raised (1,451) £1054198 £82 £123£100 £205 £10941744187 £74 £96 55 GeiesRased (725k) «0 £97 £60 €58 £143 E88 E90 £143 £6 E96 EM £1
losses Resolved (936K) £91 £103 £69 £94 £69 £128 £63 €73 £147 €43 £43 £12
Tier 2 support - 1,119 of 1,162 cases resolved/closed - 96% of Assistance Requests resolved. £936k Losses
resolved, £672k Gains resolved
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insResohed (£672K) £0 €11 £59 £45 €142 E58 £97 £142 £0 E34 E58 EL
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Appendix 2
Known Errors with potential financial impact (correct at 10th March 2020)
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Description Potential impact Any additional No.
information branches
reporting
In branches with replacement PIN pads as part of ongoing roll-out: an error I No financial impact. NEW ISSUE. Solution 2
message occurs on PIN pad and transaction is declined when Post Office
Card Account (POca) customer tries to change their PIN number for their
POca card, This would only happen if for example the customer has
received a replacement card and wants to change the PIN from the number
supplied.
Customer can still withdraw their money if they use the supplied
PIN.
being worked on and due
to roll out in April.
When there is a complex basket with more than one payment method and
cheques are accepted for one/some of the transactions in the basket but
not all, the prompt to say cheque payment is not acceptable appears but
can be cancelled through by the branch.
Travel Money transaction automatically reverses to cash when branch
recovers or tries to reverse the transaction, even though it was paid for on
debit card.
Could cause potential losses for unpaid cheques.
Could lead to branch showing a cash gain.
Customer's transaction may not go through.
Manual rem in of Travel Money only allows full values to be inputted - the
decimal point is not included in this transaction.
‘A much larger amount of currency would appear when balancing
or when remming [Remittance] in than the branch actually has.
This is because without the decimal point, keying 500.00 as you
would on a standard Horizon entry would appear as 50000, for
example.
When a key is pressed on keyboard in branch, the relevant character or
product occasionally appears on screen or in the basket multiple times.
The basket in branch could have multiple incorrect items entered
into it that, if not noticed, could be settled to the customer or
appear as a loss in branch.
Branch is forced to log off when remming in currency or cash.
Final rem in receipt is printed but not shown in branch's holdings.
Could leave the branch showing a gain.
NEW ISSUE i
i
i
i
We are planning an 2
update that will resolve
this, currently planned
for April.
Travel Money Card top up transaction crashes and when recovery is
attempted the Horizon system crashes again and is in an unrecoverable
recovery loop.
Horizon system can’t be used and the customer will not have been
credited but could have been charged if settled by debit card.
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Appendix 3 Current Contractual decisions likely to lead to Dispute
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Name/Code Date
~ 26 April GRO. {Postmaster raised questions during the course of Enil he Postmaster remains under investigation with a 2nd interview
20 June Postmaster is an employee of i._... GRO" }s0 legal advice sought in dealing with case. Further advice sought around £39,864.78 Pecision taken to reinstate - currently arranging training; Further
23 July Branches run by sisters (separate contracts). On the day of suspension Postmaster suggested they were{ £127,596.46 Pngoing puspensoninvecsoation = decision taken to progress
‘8 January ‘Audit corrected stock issues (stock not remitted in) in branch from the period between November 2018 and November 2019. £8,957.61/ shortfall currently blocked; Intervention support arranged to provide
(branch aucit) I Postmaster should not ce held liable. Also ‘queried the fact the adjustments were made in his. tll
Email also received from {7 Jasking that POL report the matter to the Police and not the Postmaster as itis potentially @
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Appendix 4
Branch
GRO
Case Review Completions/Settlements since the Case Review Team formed in November 2019
Brief Overview
[A series of statements made in relation to his dissatisfaction with the PO,
Horizon and previous issues.
Conclusion
investigation completed. Discussed issues with Pmr who did not
reference making a claim. No further issues and case dosed.
[Losses of circa £29k. Pmr suspended and subsequently reinstated, Made
allegations about Horizon errors during suspension and was repaying
losses but then sent a series of emails contesting all losses since July
12017 and threatening litigation. Pmr stated he had{ 3
which this situation was compounding. Claimed POL forced him to repay
shortfalls, provided inadequate training, provided faulty equipment,
refused to investigate problems, caused consequential losses and was
lunresponsive to him.
[Settlement Agreement worth £130,936.34 (payment of £67,453.34 and
write off £43,483). Rationale reported extensively to board previously.
Case closed.
[CURRENT
Pmr has settled a loss of £175.37 centrally and called to say that the loss
lis being investigated by the NFSP as she believes that Horizon caused the}
losses.
[investigation completed and confirmed that the shortfall should stand.
investigation explained to Pmr who has now paid the outstanding
lamount. Case closed.
FORMER
Former Pmr, TC dispute from 18/10/2017 re outmoded currency.
jinvestigation completed and confirmed that POL were not dear in their
lcomms. WED advised POL to refund the £55.15 to Pmr. POL agreed,
jamount was paid. Case closed.
FORMER
Former Pmr asking to check for discrepancies c.£1,500. He stated that he
paid the final account but that for the last six or seven weeks before he
left he was always putting in money when he balanced on a Wednesday.
investigation completed and found that stock had not been booked in
correctly. Credit TP6 for £530.50 issued to Pmrs late account, paid by
IBACS payment. Case closed.
[CURRENT
PMR is disputing lottery transactions and the advice that was provided to
her via the helpline. PMR has requested transcripts and recordings of
calls to the helpline.
investigation completed and showed that the TC was correct to stand.
Report shared with Pmr. Repayment in progress. Case closed.
[CURRENT
PMR was suspended on 19 February 2019 (before the Cli Judgment was
handed down) as a result ofI
He was not paid during suspension. The 1Ssues leading to his Suspension
were resolved, with evidence being provided to POL on 15 May 2019. He
Iwas informed he would be reinstated on 23 May 2019 but this could not
be facilitated until 10 July 2019. The PMR is complaining about not being
paid during his suspension and quotes a period of 24 weeks without pay.
Ciaim is for £28,571.98.
Settiement Agreement approved by WED, I GRO
process. ‘S03 WHRESH OF. AiROUE
agreed between WBD andi “raking into account
IGLO outcomes (pay on suspension, shortfails etc) and delay in reinstating
lbut discounting other amounts claimed for. Case closed.
[CURRENT
This relates to cheque discrepancy of £2,497.92 and the SPM is claiming
this is caused by a computer error. Post Office have already investigated
ithe discrepancy and sent detailed findings to the SPM, however, the SPM
has asked for Post Office to investigate the discrepancy again.
Full investigation completed and showed a number of POL failings, ResultsI
ation explained to Pmr and TC debt written off. Approved by
GRO __}Case dosed.
Strictly Confidential
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Tab 10.2 Operational Improvement Plan
Appendix 5
Post GLO Settlement Programme Governance structure
Board Level
Executive Level
Programme Level
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Tab 10.2 Operational Improvement Plan
Appendix 6
2019/20 GLO activity and spend at P11 (February)
Spend and forecasts collated by Finance and presented each month to GE
em
ploy FY Stil
Opex ee
inence Remuneration = increased ates YorBankine I 5, Increased agents remuneration for banking wansacions
and Fced pay Implemented August 19, plus increased fined payments
[Agents Remuneration forsuspended Postmaster: [a5 I" @iE” ay suspended Posimasters
IAgents Remunerstion- deep dive a5 greed and actioned, costs coming rough
Nosperd sgnnet
(i a Ld ILegal spend captured in GLO (£58m) budget ‘this budget
To spend aint
610 Communications 0s ‘oaboamee
Simplerbusiness training and engagement I 12 Sa as ears
impact on Change plan reprioritisation os I
Av impact of process changes covers £1258m Agents debt and
eee e816 resource costs Compete
Transaction corecion Disputes - complete
, jier2 Balancing Suppor = comple
BAU impact ot process changes (placeholder) I 23, [ae re-tagaer
Anatjcal review of Loss Prevention Team processes and
documents, defining and making required changes and
embedding int BAU- On ack
Opex total 12.0
[o Banking (3,200 TCs) — changes to reduce abil
Imistakes. Jan 20) Complete
‘0 Bureau TCs (625 TCs) ~ colour coded se!
‘screens and segmentation of services to launch. (April 2020) OnI
rack
Io Cash remittances from branch improvements (5000 TCs) —
Horizon changes (quick wins) 22 I 05 ‘confirmation prompt and ability to modify/correct cash and,
lother dectarations. (April 2020) On track
'o Making clear on a Branch Trading Statement that Postmasters,
have the ability to dispute the balance figure. Introducing 3
\dedicated key (F1) to the support and dispute guides. (Apri
'2020) On track.
Branch hub ini
a5 (Gd Acceleration of Branch Hub Sprints
Providing our Regional and Area Managers with the skil
Itools required to build trusted relationships with our
30 I 23 Postmasters and help them to improve their business
iperformance. This in tum will creates income for POL, reduces
the risk of churn and improves engagement
[Design of new processes (including loss prevention) =
jon function and introduc!
Design of new processes (including loss prevention)I 18 I 11 jement system and Basic SAP Improvements giving
ithe ability to recommence our loss recovery activity whilst
\doing this confidently within the findings of the GLO.
Simpler Business ~HotHousing to accelerate field
structure benefits
ae ae do I PUTED Rectasstied as part of wider of OE project. Moments
‘change toto! as [54 I 66 I 29
Total as [tat I tsa I ot
(Source: Financial Improvement and Analysis 18/3/20)
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