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Overturned Convictions
Terms of Reference for the Independent Pecuniary
Compensation Assessment Panel
Contents:
A. Introduction and purpose
. The Overriding Objective
. Definitions
. Role and remit of the Panel
moo DB
. Composition and Governance
Membership
Chair, Structure and Consensus
. Communications with the Panel
. Referral and Procedure
xm om
. The Recommendation
I. Confidentiality
J. Fees and costs
K. Target timescales
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A. Introduction and Purpose
The Independent Pecuniary Compensation Assessment Panel has been constituted
as an accessible and independent body whose objective is to facilitate the
resolution of disputes regarding the amount of pecuniary compensation to be paid
by Post Office to Claimants with overturned convictions, in the context of an
Independent Pecuniary Compensation Assessment.
Prior to any referral to the Panel, Post Office will have made Claimants a without
prejudice offer of compensation in accordance with the Principles pursuant to the
Pecuniary Compensation Assessment Process. Where the amount of compensation
to be paid to a Claimant cannot be settled by agreement between Post Office and
the Claimant concerned, either party may refer the dispute to the Panel who will
make a non-binding recommendation as to the appropriate amount of
compensation to be paid.
To help facilitate the resolution of disputes, the Independent Assessment and all
aspects of the Panel's role as set out in these Terms of Reference will operate on
a without prejudice basis.
Although it is anticipated that the Panel's recommendation will facilitate the
resolution of disputes by agreement, nothing in the Independent Assessment or
the Panel's role is intended to deprive the parties of their right to resort to open
litigation (or agree upon an alternative dispute resolution process) should they
wish to do so.
B. The Overriding Objective
1. The Panel's overriding objective is to facilitate the fair and independent
resolution of disputes which arise in the context of Eligible Claims by, amongst
other things:
(a) Making recommendations as to pecuniary compensation which are fair
and consistent as between Claimants, taking into account the facts of
each case;
(b) Devising appropriate procedures to enable the Panel to make
recommendations;
(c) Acting independently and treating all parties to the Independent
Assessment impartially;
(d) I Operating expeditiously and at a proportionate cost, taking into account
the amount of money involved and the importance or complexity of the
issue in each case.
C. Definitions
2. The following definitions shall have the following meanings:
(a) The 'Chairperson' or 'Chair' means Sir Gary Hickinbottom or, in his
absence, his delegate.
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(b) ‘Eligible Claim' means a claim for compensation in respect of pecuniary
losses by a Claimant whose conviction has been overturned and in
respect of which Post Office has made an offer of compensation which
has not been accepted by the Claimant (in whole or in part).
(c) "Independent Assessment’ means the Pecuniary Compensation
Assessment, as set out in the Pecuniary Compensation Assessment
Process.
(d) I The 'Panel' means the Independent Pecuniary Compensation Assessment
Panel which shall be constituted as described in paragraph 7 below.
(e) The 'parties' or a 'party' shall mean the Claimant making the pecuniary
loss claim and/or Post Office, as the context requires.
(f) The 'Principles' means the without prejudice principles underlying offers
of pecuniary compensation, which have been the subject of consultation
with Claimants. The Principles may be the subject of amendment from
time to time, for example to reflect feedback from Claimants,
recommendations made by the Panel or any new scenarios which present
themselves.
D. Role and remit of the Panel
3. The Panel's role is to facilitate the resolution of disputes by making non-binding
recommendations as to the amount of pecuniary compensation which should
be paid to Claimants in respect of any disputed heads of loss, taking into
account the total compensation package which has been made available to the
Claimant concerned.
4. In arriving at its recommendations, the Panel will apply the Principles save that
where the dispute concerns the fairness of any of the Principles themselves or
raises an issue which is not covered by the Principles, the Panel may also
recommend any amendments to the Principles which it considers appropriate
(please see Section H for further reference).
5. The Panel shall be entitled to determine all procedural matters relevant to its
role, including any objections to its jurisdiction or constitution and shall, in
particular, have the ability to:
(a) I Ask the parties to provide additional documents, information or other
evidence which it considers are reasonably necessary to enable the
Panel to make its recommendations;
(b) Seta procedural timetable for the provision of such information;
(c) Consider cases referred to it on the papers or, alternatively, convene an
oral hearing if the Panel considers that it would be necessary or
expedient to do so.
6. Should the Panel consider that the input of an expert is required to fairly
resolve any disputed issue, it may ask the parties to produce expert evidence
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on an identified issue or recommend that a single joint expert be instructed
and/or instruct its own expert.
E. Composition and Governance
Membership
7. The Panel shall be constituted from one or more individual panel members who
are either:
(a) Legal experts;
(b) Accountants; or
(c) Retail specialists.
8. All Panel members are required to be independent and must not have had any
prior interest or involvement in any of the issues between Post Office and
postmasters that are the subject of these disputes.
Chair, Structure and Consensus
9. Sir Gary Hickinbottom shall be the Chairperson of the Panel.
10. The Chairperson will be responsible for:
(a) Receiving referrals of cases to the Panel;
(b) I Reviewing the issue(s) in dispute and deciding which member(s) of the
Panel should constitute the Panel for that case, taking into account the
issues arising and the expertise required;
(c) Communicating with the parties, including giving any procedural
directions;
(d) I Sharing the Panel's recommendation with the parties;
(e) I Recommending any amendments to the Principles, if necessary after
consultation with the Panel members who constituted the Panel for the
relevant case.
11.The Panel member(s) nominated by the Chairperson pursuant to 10(b) above
shall comprise the Panel for that case.
12.Where the Panel charged with considering a case is made up of more than one
Panel member and the Panel members are not able to reach consensus on the
recommendation to be made, the majority view will be treated as the
recommendation of the Panel. If there is no majority, the Chairperson’s view
will be treated as the recommendation of the Panel.
13.The Chairperson may appoint additional Panel members who fulfil the
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qualification requirements set out in these Terms of Reference to ensure that
the Panel is adequately resourced and there is no undue delay to the
consideration of cases. Any such appointments are subject to agreement with
Post Office as to the terms of their retainer.
E. Communications with the Panel
14.Communications with the Panel shall be by email and shall be sent to the
Chairperson's clerk who will act.as an ‘Independent Facilitator’ at the following
address: POPanelEnquiries copied to the other party. The
clerk's role will be purely administrative in nature and include receiving
communications and submissions from Claimants and Post Office and sharing
them with the Chairperson and/or Panel, arranging Panel meetings and/or
hearings as required and issuing correspondence on behalf of the
Chairperson/Panel as required.
15.Any communications
vith Post Office should be sent to
G. Referral and Procedure
16.Should a party wish to refer an issue in dispute to the Panel, they shall provide
7 working days' notice of their intention to do so by email to the Panel and
the other party.
17.A party should refer disputed issue(s) to the Panel by completing the
application form supplied and sending a copy by email to the Chairperson's
Clerk, copied to the other party.
18. The application form should include:
(a) Acopy of the without prejudice offer(s) made to the Claimant;
(b) I Aconcise summary of the referring party's position on the disputed
issue(s);
(c) Relevant correspondence between the parties; and
(d) Any relevant supporting evidence.
19.The other party should within 10 working days of receipt of the referral (or
such other period as the Chairperson may allow) share a similar concise
summary of their position, together with any additional correspondence and
supporting documents, by email with the Chairperson and the other party.
20.If, following receipt of a party's submissions, either party wishes to make a
revised proposal to the other party, that party must inform the Chairperson
and the other party immediately and in any event within 10 working days,
setting out the date by which any revised proposal will be shared with the other
party and the Panel.
21.Within 14 working days of receipt of the documents referred to at paragraphs
17 to 19 above or, where a revised proposal is made, confirmation from either
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the Claimant or Post Office that the revised proposal has not resolved the
dispute, the Chairperson will write to the parties to inform them which Panel
members will constitute the Panel for that case and discuss with the parties
the further steps (if any) that will be required to enable the Panel to make a
recommendation.
22.In deciding the appropriate procedure to adopt, the Chairperson will take
account of the Overriding Objective of achieving swift and fair resolutions at
proportionate cost.
H. The Recommendation
23.Once the Panel has considered the parties submissions and any such additional
information which it considers reasonably necessary to enable it to make a
recommendation, the Panel will prepare its recommendation and share a copy
by email simultaneously to both the Claimant and Post Office.
24.The recommendation should be made on a without prejudice basis and
should be supported by brief written reasons.
25.The recommendation will not be legally binding on either party but the
expectation is that it will allow the parties to reach agreement in respect of
the disputed head(s) of loss.
26.If the Chairperson considers that the Principles require amendment in light of
the recommendation made in the context of an offer to a specific dispute, the
Chairperson will make this recommendation at the same time as making a
recommendation on the disputed head of loss.
27.The Chairperson shall recommend a proposed amendment of the Principles to
the parties, taking into account any requirement to preserve the
confidentiality of information relating to the individual case, including as to
the amount of the compensation offered and/or recommended to be paid.
28.Any recommendation to amend a Principle will be non-binding and will be
supported by a short written summary as to the reasoning.
29.All parties will use best endeavours to agree the text of any amendment to
the Principles recommended by the Chairperson. The agreed text, or if the
text is not agreed, the parties' respective positions on the proposed text of
the amendment, shall be shared with the Chairperson within 14 working
days.
30.The Chairperson will then consider all comments received and shall issue the
final text of the amendment to the Principle within 14 working days.
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31.Once issued and if agreed by the parties, The Chairperson’s clerk thereafter
shall share an amended version of the Principles with all Claimant firms
incorporating the final text of the amendment.
I. Confidentiality
32.Unless agreed otherwise in writing between the parties or required by law,
these Terms of Reference and all other information, whether written or oral,
which is shared between the Panel and the parties as part of the Independent
Assessment is confidential to the parties and shall not be disclosed by any
member of the Panel to any third party or used for any other purpose other
than the Independent Assessment, save that Panel members may share such
information as may be necessary to enable them to carry out their functions
under these Terms of Reference with:
(a) Any third party experts retained by the Panel to assist them in making
recommendations under the Independent Assessment; and
(b) I Panel members' own employees, companies or agents, insurers and
professional advisors, accountants and auditors
provided that any such party to whom such information is disclosed also agrees
to maintain its confidential status in accordance with the same terms and
subject to the same exceptions as set out in this clause.
J. Fees and Costs
33.The Panel’s fees and any disbursements are to be paid by Post Office.
34.The reasonable costs of a Claimant's participation in the Independent
Assessment will be paid by Post Office on the standard basis, to be assessed if
not agreed.
K. Target escales
35.The target timescales for the Independent Assessment are set out below.
Action Timescale
Notice of intention to refer an issue to the Panel 7 working days in advance of
to be provided to the Chair and the other party lodging referral
Party to provide a copy of the referral application I 7 working days from the date of
and evidence to the Chair and the other party notice of intention to refer
Other party to provide concise summary of their 10 working days from receipt of
position to Chair and other side referral application
Chair to notify parties of Panel composition and Within 14 working days of receipt
propose timetable for further information of the parties' submissions and any
required to enable it to make recommendation further proposals pursuant to
clause 21
Panel to issue its Recommendation for No more than 21 working days
determination on a disputed issue and/or a from the conclusion of the Panel's
Principle adjustment recommendation assessment
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