As I wrote last weekend that there would be another significant update to follow, here it is.....slightly delayed due to change.org having website issues over the past 48 hours. Whoever said computers and technology are effective 100% of the time - Post Office Ltd ran that script for years!
There have been many more developments than I expected to share with everyone, the most important being our next legal route. Alan Bates leader of the Justice for Sub Postmasters Alliance has been seeking expert legal advice on what to do next. The major progress we were making in parliament ground to a shuddering halt due to Covid-19 and it is likely it will be a while yet until that resumes at the same pace.
What other options do the group have? Well since the government has only recently put parliamentary framework in place to govern oversight of the Post Office then it is abundantly clear that they have been negligent for over 20 years. A legal case could be made against BEIS (Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy however like the recent litigation it would be a very long and expensive road to take and we would again require funding into the tens of millions to pursue this. Since the government has not been very forthcoming to right this scandal we can assume they would throw everything at fighting this legal action exactly like the Post Office did. The other option advised by a specialist QC is that a complaint could be made to the parliamentary ombudsman, this would be a better, quicker and cheaper route to take. The parliamentary ombudsman established in 1967 can investigate complaints from members of the public who believe they have suffered injustice because of maladministration by government departments or public bodies. Maladministration can be defined as the public body not having acted properly or fairly, or having given a poor service and not put things right. At the time the office was established, Richard Crossman, the then Leader of the House of Commons, defined maladministration as including "bias, neglect, inattention, delay, incompetence, inaptitude, perversity, turpitude, arbitrariness and so on". It is obvious that the Sub Postmasters have suffered all of the above and much more over the years, so what does all this actually mean? The Ombudsman has the right to summon persons and papers, (i.e. to require the attendance of witnesses and to have access to information), and absolute privilege to protect his or her reports. These powers are analogous to the powers of a judge of the High Court. This means those that made decisions or didn't make decisions will have to defend what they did and what actions or lack of them they took. Once the investigation is complete which can take up to 6 months (although probably longer due to Covid-19) if the ombudsman finds in favour of the complainant, and against a department, the Ombudsman has no executive powers to alter a department's decision or award compensation. An appropriate remedy may be suggested, as a recommendation; and an appropriate response may or may not include a financial remedy. The former Ombudsman, Ann Abraham published her "principles for remedy" in 2009. The principles state that:...not all maladministration or poor service results in injustice or hardship, but where it does, our underlying principle is to ensure that the public body restores the complainant to the position they would have been in if the maladministration or poor service had not occurred. If that is not possible, the public body should compensate them appropriately. The Ombudsman has no power to enforce provision of a remedy. Usually departments are able to come to an agreement on an acceptable outcome but in exceptional cases a department may refuse and may argue that the Ombudsman's conclusions are mistaken. That is what those who have suffered need...those responsible to be held to account, put back to the position they were in prior to this scandal affecting them or if not a financial remedy to compensate accordingly. So what would happen if the recommendations were ignored..............
Under Section 10(3) of the Parliamentary Commissioner Act 1967, the Ombudsman has the ability to lay a special report before Parliament if an injustice has been done, and it seems unlikely to be remedied. The Ombudsman has only made special reports to Parliament in a total of seven cases since 1967. The Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committee would normally follow up any special report made to Parliament, and hold oral hearings. However, such hearings are not a requirement in House of Commons Standing Orders. In most instances, the Government has given way on at least some of their objections to accepting the Ombudsman's recommendations. So it appears in the overall majority of cases the government and/or department backs down and puts a remedy in place.
All sounds good so far right? So why do we need your help and support?
Well it is free to send a complaint to the ombudsman although this must be done by an MP. We already have a volunteer in Kevan Jones MP of North West Durham who has been campaigning on our behalf for many years alongside Andrew Bridgen for North West Leicestershire. We will only have one shot at this ombudsman route so the costs we will incur is instructing our specialist QC to prepare the submission focusing on the strongest points from the litigation and recent revelations from Post Office of over 900 cases of prosecution. This will help put a strong case of maladministration by BEIS and previously BIS. The costs would be no where near what it would be to bring litigation against the government department. The reason for not submitting a free complaint is I am sure you will agree that during the civil action POL threw everything it could at us, including four legal teams, the Court of Appeal and trying to sack the judge. Be absolutely certain that the Government will try every trick in the book to have our submission dismissed. We will only have ONE chance of following this route and we need experienced legal representation.
So what exactly is the cost of all of this?
The total cost is £98,000 including VAT. That is in vast contrast to the last litigation that had a total cost of £46 million. We need to fundraise to finance this, after one day we have raised £17,000 from extremely generous donations. At this stage no money is taken it is only a PLEDGE, if the total is not reached in 28 days then no money is taken. It is important that you understand that if we don't reach the target then we won't be making a submission to the Ombudsman. If we don't apply to the Ombudsman, and unless you know different, there does not seem to be any other process which we can cost effectively embark on. This is a real chance to finally get the redress for everyone that they deserve. So this is where we need YOUR help. You can follow the link below to commit a pledge and help us achieve our goal and more importantly share the link to this update with friends, family and colleagues so they understand why we must do this. They can read all the previous updates to get a more informed view of this scandal. Any donation you can afford to pledge will help and more importantly talking and sharing it with others. For example if each signature from the petition pledged £10 this would raise over £58,000 on top of the £17,000 and put us 3/4 of the way to the final total needed. Again please do not feel you have to donate but it really is an important cause. Hundreds have suffered at the hands of the Post Office. There has been imprisonment, bankruptcy, losing homes, tearing families and marriages apart, mental health damage, serious illness and even at least 2 confirmed suicides. Use the link below to pledge what you can afford, it will be greatly appreciated.
https://www.crowdjustice.com/case/post-office-victims/
I hope you have all been listening to BBC Radio 4 series put together by the tenacious journalist Nick Wallis and co-authored by Robert Nicholson. Nick has been our voice for over ten years now alongside Computer Weekly who broke the story with Tony Collins and recently kept going by Karl Flinders. Also Private Eye continues to cover this story in excellent detail. The BBC Radio 4 series has 2 more episodes to run on Thursday and Friday and you can catch up with it all here at your convenience. It has been widely praised by many figures in the public eye and a massive thanks must be made to Nick and the team :-
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000jf7j/episodes/player
If you have been listening to the above BBC Radio 4 series or intend to catch up on it later, you will hear new responses given by Post Office to Nick Wallis and radio 4 about how they previously co-operated with the mediation scheme and Second Sight forensic investigation. Unfortunately the current CEO Nick Read's promise that they will reset the relationship with Postmasters and learn from their past mistakes seems to have been completely ignored. Second Sights Managing Director Ron Warmington insists that as soon as they started to uncover information about suspense accounts or pressing for documents they needed to complete their investigation they were shut down by Post Office and received responses from their legal teams instead before being sacked weeks before the investigation concluded. Out of Post Office and Second Sight I think we know who is telling the truth! You can read Ron Warmington and Ian Henderson's written submissions to the BEIS Select Committee below and then decide for yourself who is still trying to mislead Postmasters, the public and Politicians. This company Post Office Ltd continues to show NO remorse for its actions, the whole reset of relationship, learning from past mistakes is a complete SHAM. Second Sights written evidence with parliamentary privilege from their gagging order placed on them by Post Office Ltd blows a hole right through anything PO have previous and currently parroting :-
https://committees.parliament.uk/writtenevidence/917/pdf/
Previously I mentioned that the CCRC had referred the largest number of cases in its history to the Court of Appeal for abuse of power by the Post Office. Today it referred 7 more taking the total to 47. The claimants have today received documents that are over 800 pages long setting out why the CCRC has decided to refer these cases. They have also asked that the Attorney General investigates whether Post Office should retain its power to bring private prosecutions. The CCRC says while the Post Office Limited’s combined status as victim, investigator and prosecutor is not part of the legal basis of its referrals to the appeal courts, it is firmly of the view that a formal review should be conducted into when and how it ought to be permissible for prosecutions to be brought in such circumstances.
On the 24th March we should have been hearing oral evidence from ex CEO Paula Vennells, current CEO Nick Read and head of Fujitsu UK. But again due to the current circumstances this was cancelled. The new BEIS Select Committee chair Darren Jones MP of North West Bristol today wrote to Paula Vennells, Nick Read and Fujitsu and asked some very hard hitting questions. We cannot wait for the responses. Darren Jones MP said 'Sub-postmasters deserve justice and it’s an appalling reality that many have suffered considerable personal distress as a result of the handling of faults in the Horizon IT system. It’s important that the Post Office and Fujitsu now respond fully to the BEIS Committee’s questions over their actions and oversight during this period. It’s important Post Office Ltd and the Government genuinely learn the lessons from this scandal and take the actions necessary to ensure this kind of mistreatment of dedicated sub-postmasters and postal staff can never arise again.' You can read the full response and all individual letters below, which makes interesting reading !! :-
I know there is a lot to take in and hopefully you will find the time to browse through it all. It really is a remarkable achievement how far we have come since 2015 but there is still some way to go to ensure everyone receives the redress they rightly deserve. Panorama was due to air a program about the Post Office before Cornavirus Pandemic hit us and it looked likely to hit the scrap heap but by pushing them hard it will now air on Monday 8th June at 19:30 on BBC One. I will send a reminder on Sunday to watch it, I am sure it will be an eye opening watch! Again thanks to Nick Wallis for being involved to bring this to the publics attention. If you miss it catch up on BBC Iplayer here :-