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POHC Working Group
Terms of Reference July 2022
The POHC Working Group (WG) is the team that supports the BEIS Post Office
Overturned Historical Convictions (POHC) Board with overseeing compensation for
postmasters whose convictions related to Horizon evidence have been overturned.
The WG consists of the BEIS Post Office policy team, representatives from BEIS legal
and BEIS finance and the UKGI POL Shareholder team. The WG is responsible to the
POHC Board.
The WG is responsible for matters requiring discussion at POHC Board meetings or
BEIS approval. The WG provides scrutiny and challenge of proposals being put
forward to the Board for approval and provides secretariat function for the POHC
Board. BEIS owns responsibility for decision making with the support of UKGI.
This document should be read in conjunction with the POHC Terms of Reference.
More detailed information of the wider governance and POHC’s relationship with
Post Office can be found in the Operations Agreement.
Responsibilities
1. Manage the actions required to bring items forward for POHC Board approval
or consideration to move forward the provision of final and interim
compensation for postmasters with overturned criminal convictions.
2. Ensure the governance requirements are being met as laid out by Treasury
in the business case.
3. Review risks monthly and produce draft risk registers for POHC to approve as
necessary.
4. Identify issues / risks that require escalation and notify the POCC Board in
writing as soon as practicable.
5. Provide monthly reports and risk updates to the Online Reporting in BEIS
(ORB) tool for monitoring by the BEIS Performance and Risk Committee.
6. Meet with the Post Office’s equivalent working group on a weekly basis to
review joint workstreams and actions and ensure a joined-up approach and
timetable between POL HRC and POHC is being taken.
7. Provide secretariat function to POHC; currently this is the remit of the BEIS
policy team.
8. Manage and update on an ongoing basis the active workstreams, agenda
planning and actions in this Workplan document. This includes preparing the
agenda for POHC.
9. Hold focussed ad hoc discussions to determine best course of action and
recommendations for POHC Board to consider.
10.Plan and record meetings, agendas and actions and manage an audit trail
that meets best practice guidelines and requirements of the Government
audit agencies such as GIAA or NAO.
11.Monitor budget spend/forecast and report these as necessary to POHC,
escalating any issues/risks of clear over or underspend.
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Meetings
The POHC WG meets weekly at a minimum and can handle actions via
correspondence in parallel with the regular meetings or instead of meetings, at the
discretion of the members.
Meetings must be attended by at least one person from BEIS and one from UKGI.
As of July 2022, two meetings are held per week and chairing responsibilities are
shared between BEIS and UKGI with Annie Carpenter (UKGI) chairing Monday
meetings and Jory Debenham (BEIS) chairing Thursday meetings.
Membership
e BEIS POL Policy Deputy Director
e Grade 6 BEIS Legal representative
e Grade 6 BEIS Finance Business Partner
e Grade 7 BEIS Analyst
e UKGI POL Shareholder Team - advisory capacity
e BEIS Post Office Compensation Team
e Other visitors can be invited for all or part of meetings