UKGI00024178 - Email from Robert Swannell to Mark Russell, Robert Razzell RE; Alex Chisholm BEIS feedback on Post Office litigation and various other BEIS projects

Evidence on official site

UKG100024178
UKGI00024178

Message

From: Robert Swannell f”
Sent: 07/09/2019 07:32
To: Russell, Mark - UKGI
Subject: Alex Chisholm BEIS

Dear Mark and Robert,

I saw Alex for 30 mins on Wednesday, 4" September. He was predictably quite pressed for time so it was a bit
of a speed meeting!

In summary he thinks we do a great job and is a big supported but he had a few issues too. We discussed the
following:

- On Post Office he instanced that the Rem discussion had, in his judgement, reflected a lack of
judgement/political instincts in believing that there should be no discount in the bonus to reflect the
potentially huge damages in the litigation. He accepted that Tom had brought some very clear
commercial nous to the POL Board and that his instincts on the CEO succession had been correct. He
said relations with Kelly Tolhurst were still a bit fragile.

- He praised David Long as a very thoughtful man worth listening to

- He also praised Maddy for her work on Cobham and getting ahead of the politics by discussions with
Advent that had pleasantly surprised the SofS.

- Onthe relationship with UKGI I said there was a concern in agreeing the MOU with BEIS ( which was
proving more difficult than any other department) that BEIS officials were trying to replicate UKGI roles
rather than treating us as part of a single HMG team. Alex said this wasn’t intended but they were

the presence of Jo Shand should help.
- We discussed the CEO succession — he was disappointed by the JM news and offered some observatins
on other potential candidates.

For all the issues discussed he went out of his way to be positive about our work.

With best wishes

Robert

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