UKGI00002574
UKGI00002574
From: The Rt. Hon. James Arbuthnot, M.P.
oF
HOUSE OF COMMONS
LONDON SWIA 0AA
MPs lose faith in Post Office mediation scheme
Today a group of MPs campaigning for justice for SubPostmasters announced that they
have lost faith in the mediation scheme run by Post Office Ltd. James Arbuthnot, leader of
the group of over 140 MPs, said:
“The scheme was set up to help our constituents seek redress and to maintain the Post
Office's good reputation. It is doing neither. It has ended up mired in legal wrangling, with
the Post Office objecting to most of the cases even going into the mediation that the
scheme was designed to provide. I can no longer give it my support. I shall now be
pursuing justice for SubPostmasters in other ways.”
Following a meeting between the Chief Executive of Post Office Ltd, Paula Vennells, and a
small group of MPs to discuss the MPs’ concerns, the Chief Executive wrote a letter setting
out the Post Office’s position. That letter and James Arbuthnot’s reply are attached hereto.
Andrew Bridgen MP said:”MPs have been working with the Post Office for two years now in
the belief that they would work towards a solution to this issue. It would appear that this
belief is increasingly looking misplaced.”
Mike Wood MP said: “Either the Post Office is awash with criminals who open Sub Post
Offices for personal gain or something has gone terribly wrong. MPs are inclined to believe
the latter and we are all shocked that the Post Office seems not to want to get to the
bottom of all this.”
Kevan Jones MP said: “My constituent has lost everything — his livelihood, his house, his
good name, and he is not the only person who faced ruin.”
Huw Irranca-Davies MP said: "The mediation process has failed even those sub-postmasters
who were originally included. But there are also many who fell outside the scheme, and
have had no chance to be heard. They all deserve fair play, they all deserve justice, so the
fight goes on."
Background:
Following complaints brought to over 140 MPs by SubPostmasters in their constituencies, the group
of MPs persuaded the Post Office to review cases where individual SubPostmasters had been accused
of false accounting and sometimes prosecuted for fraud.
The Post Office appointed independent forensic accountants, Second Sight, to conduct investigations
within the boundaries of a mediation scheme administered by a Working Group, chaired by retired
Court of Appeal Judge Sir Anthony Hooper and comprising Second Sight, Alan Bates who set up and
runs the Justice for SubPostmasters Alliance, and representatives of the Post Office.
Allen Susanne Charlett