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148 Old Street
London
EC1V 9HQ.
E paula.vennellg
The Rt Hon James Arbuthnot MP
House of Commons
LONDON
SW1A OAA
28 November 2014
Dear James,
Complaint and Mediation Scheme
Thank you for the meeting in your office on 17 November. I am writing to set out the Post
Office’s position on the proposition put forward by Mr Letwin that there should be a
"general presumption" that Post Office will agree, save in a few (undefined) exceptional
cases, to mediate all cases where this is the recommendation of Second Sight, regardless of
their merits and specific circumstances.
Having considered the proposition carefully and having discussed it as promised with my
Board, I have concluded that I cannot agree to it.
In my letter of 5 November, I set out in some detail the steps Post Office has taken to
address the concerns you raised with me in early 2012. That letter made clear my belief that
Post Office has done at least as much, if not considerably more, than might reasonably be
expected to address those concerns.
To summarise, Post Office Limited established the Scheme in good faith; Second Sight and
JFSA were principal drivers of its design, the establishment of the Working Group and the
recommendation for the appointment of its independent Chair; Post Office Limited
committed to a comprehensive re-investigation of each and every case in the Scheme; and it
pays not only for the administration of the Scheme as a whole but also provides Applicants
with funding to enable them to engage professional advisers to support them in all relevant
stages of the process.
www.postoffice.co.uk
Post Office L
Post Office and the Post (
gistered No, 2454540. Registered Office 148 Ole Street, Lo
f Post Office Limited,
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To agree to a presumption that all cases should be mediated prior to any proper
consideration of their merits would deprive the Working Group, which was set up so
rigorously and carefully by ourselves, JFSA and Second Sight, of its most important role. It is
difficult to see, in such circumstances, how it could continue.
I would point out that Post Office has not prevented any case from progressing through the
Scheme as it was designed. Instead, and as a minimum, all cases will have the benefit of a
thorough re-investigation and an independent review by Second Sight. A discussion at the
Working Group about the resulting findings cannot be seen as an unreasonable
requirement. You will also be aware that, by its very nature, mediation is a voluntary and
consensual process and, accordingly, neither Applicants nor Post Office Limited are bound
to proceed to mediation even where it is the Working Group’s view that mediation is
appropriate.
On a broader point, together with your colleagues, you appeared to suggest that the scope
of the Scheme should now be broader than issues directly associated with the Applicants’
complaints and dissatisfaction with the Horizon system and directly associated issues.
However, the Scheme was established with the specific and targeted purpose of addressing
each of the individual Applicants’ complaints and dissatisfaction with Horizon and directly
associated issues and the fact is that no fault with the system has been identified in any of
the now 119 cases that have been comprehensively re-investigated by Post Office or as part
of Second Sight’s general work. That should be welcomed and does not in any way suggest
that the Scheme is failing to meet the objectives that we, together, set for it. There is simply
no reason, therefore, to seek to change its scope retrospectively.
in summary, it is my view that the Scheme and its processes are, in fact, operating as they
were designed to. The Scheme has been enormously helpful: we have found out much
more about the underlying complaints of individual Applicants and, through the Scheme
mechanism, we are seeking where it is possible and realistic to do so, to resolve each of
those individual complaints. That has always been our shared ambition for the Scheme and,
on any reasonable and fair-minded view, I do not see any proper reason to revisit and alter
the processes we designed together at this juncture or, indeed, at all.
lam very proud of the responsible manner which the business has acted on this matter and
I can assure you that Post Office will continue thoroughly to re-investigate every case that
has been raised by individual Applicants and we remain committed to trying to resolve, ina
manner which is fair to all parties, the issues they have raised in the context of the Scheme.
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Finally, while Post Office Limited has stuck rigorously to its obligations of confidentiality
throughout this process, it is apparent from leaks to the media that the same cannot be said
of all parties to the Scheme. In the circumstances, I can confirm that should you wish to
provide a copy of this letter to the media, Post Office Limited will not object.
tam copying this letter to those present at the meeting, your fellow MPs, Andrew Bridgen,
Oliver Letwin, Mike Wood, as well as to Alan Bates at JFSA.
Yours sincerelv. nen
Paula Vennells
Chief Executive