UKG1I00030648
UKGI00030648
Message
From: Scully, Minister (Private Office)
Sent: 06/07/2020 08:45:31
To: Scullycorrespondence, Minister (Private Office]
cc: Post Office Tea
Subject: FW: Another Post Office scandal? Convicted claimants paid no compensation by the Post Office
Attachments: Note Post Office.pdf
Flag: Follow up
Hi Team,
Please can you log the attached/below for info?
Copying the policy team for awareness.
Thanks,
des GRO
Locu' rivate Secretary to the Minister for Small Business,
Department for Consumers & Labour Markets and Minister for London
i Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy
Business, Energy ictori
& Industrial Strategy
From: HOLLINRAKE, Kevin (2nd Mailbox)
Sent: 05 July 2020 10:09
Office)
Subject: Another Post Office scandal? Convicted claimants paid no compensation by the Post Office
Darren, thank you for the fine work you and the select committee are doing with regard to the Post Office Scandal.
You may be aware of the above issue already, but I have been contacted by Paul Marshall, a barrister who has been
informally assisting some of the Post Office victims, about a further injustice relating to this scandal in that convicted
claimants have been paid no compensation by the Post Office and are specifically excluded from the Historic Shortfall
Scheme. Paul originally contacted me as a result of my work as Chair of the APPG on Fair Business Banking on the Lloyds
Bank/HBOS Reading Scandal where he highlighted clear parallels between this affair and the similarly disgraceful abuse
of power in the Post Office Scandal.
That someone should be prosecuted by a state institution and imprisoned on the basis of false evidence, known to be
false, is antithetical to everything that liberal democracy and the ‘rule of law’ stand for. Such things are rightly
associated with authoritarian and despotic regimes. And yet, for 20 years, the Post Office conducted such prosecutions.
UKG1I00030648
UKGI00030648
Tracy Felstead was imprisoned aged 19 in 2002. Mrs Seema Misra was imprisoned when 8 weeks’ pregnant in
2010. Their cases have been referred to the Court of Appeal by the Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC), together
with 47 others, following Sir Peter Fraser’s judgments in the Bates v Post Office litigation. Post Office Fujitsu witnesses
have been referred to the Director of Public Prosecutions. The CCRC has described these prosecutions as ‘an affront to
the public conscience’.
It has now emerged that, while many assumed that the Post Office paid about £58 million (the vast majority of which
went to pay costs and expenses) in compensation to its sub-postmasters and sub-postmistresses, including to those who
had been convicted and imprisoned as a result of its seriously flawed prosecutions, this assumption is incorrect.
Astonishingly, it is now apparent that under the terms of settlement, negotiated between Freeths LLP, for the 550
claimants, and Herbert Smith Freehills LLP, for the Post Office, it was agreed that the Post Office was to pay no
compensation at all to claimants in the Bates v Post Office litigation who had been convicted of criminal offences. The
explanation for this remarkable conclusion is provided by a note written by Paul, a copy of which is attached to this
email.
Putting to one side any legal justification for that extraordinary outcome (none being immediately obvious), it is one that
will offend anyone with a sense of justice. Many of those convicted and imprisoned, perhaps understandably, have
suffered serious ill-health, including mental illness, as a consequence.
lam also very concerned at the involvement of Herbert Smith Freehills, who I understand are advising on the design and
implementation of the Historic Shortfall Scheme. The mere fact that HSF acted on behalf of the Post Office in the legal
action with the responsibility to minimise losses should prohibit them from taking any role in a compensation scheme.
Even more worryingly, however, HSF are the subject of a complaint from the APPG on Fair Business Banking to the
Solicitors Regulatory Authority for their role in disgraceful discrediting of whistleblower Sally Masterton in the
Lloyds/HBOS Reading Scandal and for their part in providing advice relating to the design and implementation of the
Lloyds Banks Customer Review compensation scheme. After years of complaint about the scheme by the APPG, the SME
Alliance and victims of the scandal, this was eventually determined by the independent reviewer, Sir Ross Cranston as
“not open and transparent” did “not achieve purpose of delivering fair and reasonable offers of compensation” “had
serious shortcomings” “took an overly adversarial approach in assessment of Direct and Consequential Loss” was “an
unacceptable denial of responsibility” and “was inappropriate and neither fair nor reasonable”. I fear that history is
about to repeat itself. In the APPG’s view, the scheme should be run entirely independently and completely without the
perimeter and jurisdiction of the Post Office and their legal advisers.
l urge the select committee to lead the calls for a proper compensation scheme that will enable all the victims of this
terrible tragedy and injustice to receive reparation for the injury done to them by the Post Office that is, shorn of
niceties, a state institution. The continuing absence of such a scheme will augment injustice with injustice and be
inexcusable. It is an outrage that some victims should now be left to their own devices to pursue an uncertain claim
against the Post Office for malicious prosecution. Further, the circumstances of settlement, and the denial of
recompense to those most grievously injured by the Post Office, now adds to the requirement for a proper public inquiry
into this shameful episode.
At the very least the time period for the Historic Shortfall Scheme should be extended by 3 months to 14 October 2020.
This will provide a reasonable opportunity for those affected to be able to properly evaluate the courses open to them.
The issues demand careful and mature consideration.
Amongst those I have cc’d in to this email are Business Secretary, Rt Hon Alok Sharma MP, Small Business Minister, Paul
Scully MP and Justice Secretary, Rt Hon Robert Buckland MP, who clearly have an interest and I hope will also take up
these matters.
Kind regards
Kevin Hollinrake MP
Member of Parliament, Thirsk & Malton Constituency
UKG1I00030648
UKGI00030648
Co-Chair, APPG on Fair Business Banking
UK Parliament Disclaimer: this e-mail is confidential to the intended recipient. If you have received it in error, please
notify the sender and delete it from your system. Any unauthorised use, disclosure, or copying is not permitted. This e-
mail has been checked for viruses, but no liability is accepted for any damage caused by any virus transmitted by this e-
mail. This e-mail address is not secure, is not encrypted and should not be used for sensitive data.