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Information Rights Team
Post Office Limited
1° Floor, Old Street Wing
148 Old Street
London
Mr Tim Robinson Our reference : FOI201410061556
03 November 2014
Dear Mr Robinson,
Ref: Freedom of Information Request - FO0I201410061556
lam writing in response to your email received by Post Office Limited on 06 October 2014, which I am
dealing with under the terms of the Freedom of Information Act 2000.
You have requested information about prosecutions with respect to subpostmasters. It may be helpful to
explain that as you would expect from a responsible business dealing with billions of pounds every year,
Post Office Limited treats all suspected cases of possible criminal conduct very seriously, and will consider
each case on its facts. In deciding whether a case should proceed to criminal prosecution Post Office
Limited must be satisfied that it meets both of the two stages of the test set out in The Code for Crown
Prosecutors. The first is whether there is sufficient evidence to justify a prosecution and the second is
whether the prosecution would be in the public interest. A criminal prosecution will only be pursued by
Post Office Limited if both stages are satisfied.
It is also important to put the issue of any prosecutions and convictions of subpostmasters clearly into
context. The number of Post Office branches run by subpostmasters has been, and continues to be, well
over 11,000 in each of the years for which you have requested data. They and their teams conduct billions
of transactions within a year.
In this context the number of specific cases that may warrant prosecution consideration in a particular year
is very small and each individual case will relate to very specific individual circumstances relevant to that
case. These are extremely rare occurrences in a network of over 11,500 branches which provide key
services to local communities throughout the United Kingdom with trusted and hardworking
subpostmasters and their staff providing unparalleled coverage and accessibility for our customers.
In your email, you have requested the info rmation in seven parts:
A) In each year since 2005, how many subpostmasters/mistresses have been prosecuted?
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I can confirm that Post Office Limited holds some of the information you have requested, however we only
hold information on cases for the last five financial years. The number of cases where prosecution
processes were commenced against subpostmasters is provided in the table below (information is provided
for full financial years covering April to March from 2009/10 to 2013/4).
Year Number
Prosecuted
2009/10 53
2010/11 29
2011/12 38
2012/13 34
2013/14 12
(Note - the above figures do not include 2 cases where the data does not identify whether the person
prosecuted was a subpostmaster or another person such as an assistant - one in 2009/10 and one in
2012/13). The information given here relates to the year in which the prosecution commenced.
B) In each year, how many of those were convicted?
Of the above, the number of convictions following a full legal process through the Courts is provided in the
table below. Again the information is based on full financial years covering April to March from 2009/10 to
2013/4.
Year Number
Convicted
2009/10 49
2010/11 27
2011/12 32
2012/13 27
2013/14 7
(Note - The information above does not include a total of 11 cases across the period where the data
record does not indicate whether there was a verdict).
Within the information above a conviction is a case where in law, there has been a process through the
Courts and a conviction made. Therefore if a case was withdrawn for any reason prior to the Court process
it would not be included in the above conviction figures. Furthermore there may be a considerable time lag
between the commencement of a prosecution and a subsequent conviction. Therefore a number of the
prosecution cases that have commenced (as given in response to question A) will not have yet come to the
point where there is a verdict because the case is still underway. Therefore these cases will not be
reflected in the numbers given in response to question B above.
C) In each year, how many of those were not convicted?
We would refer you to the answers given above to questions A and B. For the small numbers of cases
where a prosecution was commenced that has not ended yet in a verdict in the Courts, there will be a
number of reasons - for example the case may have been withdrawn prior to Court proceedings
commencing for a number of reasons and there are time lags where proceedings are still underway.
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D) In each year, how many of those cases were sent to court by the Crown Prosecution Service
(cps)?
The cases given above are all cases investigated and prosecuted by Post Office Limited in accordance with
the Code for Crown Prosecutors, which is the same Code used by the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS).
E) In each year, how many cases were sent to court by POL?
I can confirm that Post Office Limited do hold the information you have requested, please refer to the
answer provided to question A) above.
F) In each year, how many of the cases sent to court by POL had previously been investigated by
Police and not handed to the CPS?
I can confirm that Post Office Limited do not hold the information you have requested. Any case
investigated solely by the Police would be prosecuted by the CPS.
G) In each year, how many of the cases sent to court by POL had been previously handed to the
CPS by Police, but not sent to court?
I can confirm that Post Office Limited do not hold the information you have requested. If the CPS is
handling a case it wouldn't be handed to POL.
I hope the information I have provided on this occasion is useful, however if you are dissatisfied with the
handling of this response, you do have a right to request an internal review. You can do this by writing to
the address below stating your reasons for your internal review request.
Information Rights Manager
Post Office Limited
Information Rights Team
1% Floor
Old Street Wing
148 Old Street
London
EC1V 9HQ
foias
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If, having requested an internal review by Post Office Limited, you are still not satisfied with our response
you also have a right of appeal to the Information Commissioner at:
Information Commissioner's Office
Wycliffe House
Water Lane
Wilmslow
Cheshire
SK9 SAF
Telephone:
www. informationcommissioner.gov.uk.
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Yours sincerely
Anna Gos
Information Rights Team Support
Information Rights Team
foiad
http://www. postoffice.co.uk/our-publication-scheme