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Burges 2 fieldfisher
Salmon
One Glass Wharf
Brist
Solicitor to the Inquiry
Post Office Horizon IT Inquiry
5th Floor ges-salmon.com
Aldwych House Bristol
71-91 Aldwych
London
WC2B 4HN
By email only to!
4 October 2024
POST OFFICE HORIZON IT INQUIRY: PHASE 7 —- Comments by the Chair to the Inquiry in evidence of
Henry Staunton on Tuesday, 1 October 2024
Dear Solicitor to the Inquiry
1. We write further to the evidence of Mr Henry Staunton on Tuesday, 1 October 2024, in particular, the
evidence set out at pages 166 to 169 of the Inquiry Transcript for that day: poh_1_october_2024 pdf
2. We understand from the questions put by the Chair to the Inquiry to Mr Staunton on his knowledge of the
three documents’ issued by the Chair on compensation, that the Chair is interested in the knowledge at
the Board level of Post Office of the Chair's recommendations in these documents including that
compensation to postmasters should be “full and fair".
3. Given the questions the Chair put to Mr Staunton, Post Office wanted to ensure that the Chair has an
accurate position before him. Several documents have been identified as being of direct relevance to the
points raised. One document has already been produced to the Inquiry, and we understand that two
documents have not been produced by Post Office thus far.
4. Documents already produced to the Inquiry
a) Board Pack dated 27 September 2022 (POL00448625)
i. Page 80 paragraph 61; "Following the hearings on 6 and 13 July 2022 and Sir
Wyn’s Progress Update issued on 15 August, we are working at pace to address
his observations. HRC were presented with a number of papers on our
recommendations on 8 September, some of which are still being reviewed We
met with our King’s Counsel on 14 September to consider our next steps for
updating the Inquiry, looking at a date in mid-October for our follow up
submission."
" Post Office understands these three documents to be: (1) The Chair's Progress Update on Issues relating to Compensation dated 15,
‘August 2022; (2) The Chair's Statement on Issues Relating to Compensation dated 9 January 2023; and (3) First Interim Report
Compensation dated 17 July 2023 (together, the ‘Chair's Reports’)
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Page 162: "Following the hearings on 6 and 13 July 2022, and Sir Wyn’s Progress
Update issued on 15 August, we are working at pace to address his key
observations. HRC will be presented with a number of papers on our
recommendation for their consideration on 8 September 2022."
5. Documents not produced to the Inquiry
a) Board Pack dated 24 January 2023:
Page 39, paragraphs 55-56: "55. POL attended the Inquiry Hearing on
Compensation on 8th December and HM Legal have subsequently collated a
summary of arising actions, and a paper was presented to HRC on 15th
December outlining the range of issues raised at the Inquiry. The required actions
will be tracked and actioned within HMU. Sir Wyn issued his response to the
hearing, electing not to issue an interim report, but did challenge the delay
generally and the Late Applications approach. He has scheduled a compensation
hearing in April later this year.
56. POL have constructively challenged statements made in the BEIS oral
submission and on reflection BEIS agreed to write to the Inquiry to provide clarity
of their submission."
Page 65, paragraph 24: "Sir Wyn reached the ‘clear conclusion’ that a formal
interim report was not necessary and said he intends to continue to monitor
progress by holding another hearing on compensation in April. Sir Wyn
recognised the balance that needs to be struck between the speed of decision
making and ensuring that offers are full and fair but noted he is ‘not persuaded as
yet that the complex applications within HSS are being processed with sufficient
vigour.’ He noted that this is a topic he intends to return to in phase 5. He also
recorded his view that given overall delays, fairness demands an ‘unequivocal
statement’ that all late applications to HSS should be accepted subject only to the
usual eligibility criteria — ie. that there should not be any requirement to provide a
reason for the lateness of the application. HMU are discussing this with BEIS to
agree a way forward.”
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b) Email from Rachel Scarabelotti to members of the Board (including Mr Staunton) dated 17 July
2023 summarising the Chair's interim report of 17 July 2023 and attaching a detailed note. In
particular, the final bullet point to the attachment: "Sir Wyn acknowledges that POL has made
commitments to full and fair compensation — and says he does not consider there is any valid legal
reason why DBT and POL cannot give effect to the commitments made. He says this should apply
with equal force to all three schemes".
6. Post Office would also like to follow up on one point which arose in the context of Sir Wyn’'s third question
to Mr Staunton, which was predicated on there being two distinct potential approaches to compensation:
full and fair or having regard to the public purse. As the Inquiry may recall, under the HSS all proposed
offers are produced following consideration and a recommendation by the Independent Advisory Panel
rather than by Post Office (who has always accepted the recommendation or increased the offers). In this
context Post Office would emphasise the IAP's obligation to be guided by broad considerations of fairness
(further to §31 of the IAP’s Terms of Reference).
7. To the extent that Post Office identifies any further information that will assist in relation to this, it will update
the Inquiry as soon as possible.
Please let us know if you have any questions.
Yours faithfully
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Burges Salmow LLP Field fisher LLP
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