Back to the Oval in July
Hello
Tomorrow will be a big media day in the Post Office Horizon IT Inquiry. “Volume One” of the Inquiry report is being released at noon at The Oval cricket ground in South London.
The Oval hosted a number of Human Impact hearings in 2022 before the inquiry moved first to Juxon House (in the shadow of St Paul’s Cathedral) and then to Aldwych House on the Strand (which held most of the sessions from 2023 onwards).
What will it tell us?
The report will deal with Human Impact and Compensation. I’m told Sir Wyn Williams, the inquiry chair, sees these as intrinsically linked – the need to compensate people is because of what happened to them. Highlighting what happened to them therefore makes sense in the context of compensation.
Sir Wyn can make findings about the multitudinous compensation schemes and the behaviour of the government and Post Office in administering them. He cannot make directions, only recommendations. The government must respond (in due course), but does not have to accept Sir Wyn’s recommendations.
The reason for publishing Volume One of the report now may be tactical. You will remember Sir Brian Langstaff’s concern about compensating victims of the Infected Blood Scandal. He urged the government to set up a compensation scheme without waiting for his Inquiry’s final report. He has subsequently held compensation hearings after delivering his final report.
By publishing a report focused on redress (or lack of it) tomorrow, Sir Wyn ensures it is headline news and not buried in a more wide-ranging document. He has also given himself room to address the government’s response to his compensation recommendations in his final report. He may also announce further compensation hearings, but as he didn’t show too much enthusiasm for extra hearings when the issue was raised (on a couple of occasions, notably by Sam Stein KC), he may not.
Media and logistics
Judging by my schedule tomorrow, the media coverage will be extensive. If you want to catch what I have to say anywhere, this is where you can find me:
6.30am BBC Breakfast
7.05am BBC Scotland
7.30am Today, BBC Radio 4
8.45am Times Radio
Then at 9.30am I can go into a room to see a copy of the report in advance. This will allow me to write you a blog post, which I will publish as soon as the report is formally released at midday. Then I will do:
12.05am BBC Radio 5Live
Then at 12.30pm, Sir Wyn Williams will address the inquiry hearing room in person. His comments are expected to last around 20 minutes. This will be broadcast live here on youtube. He will not, apparently, be taking questions. Then I will give my hot/considered takes on the report to the following:
2.45pm Sky News
3pm BBC TV News
6pm ITV London News
… before heading home. If you would like to get my blog post as an email (within an hour of it being published), make sure you have put your email into the sign up box on the front page of the Post Office Scandal website. I may or may not have the energy to write another newsletter at the end of the day, possibly with a beer in hand.
Books
Obviously tomorrow will feature in my book, but when that book will be published is another matter. There has been a lot of chatter about the rest of the Sir Wyn’s report and when it might drop. One authoritative source suggested getting it out before the end of the year would be “a push”. If that’s the case, my book will also not be published this year. Apologies to those who have already put their money down. I hope it will be worth the wait when it does arrive.
At a recent sojourn to the Private Eye awards I bumped into Lord Arbuthnot (which was nice) and Richard Brooks, long-term Private Eye staffer and ace hack. Richard told me he too is writing a book on the scandal for Private Eye, which may even be published this year.
Another person who has just submitted a book for publication about the scandal is Professor Richard Moorhead, one quarter of the Horizon Compensation Advisory Board. The book is a re-write of Prof Moorhead’s Hamlyn lectures (one of which I was lucky to attend), and I am sure I will be able to give you more information about publication dates in due course.
Finally I have mentioned, but, unforgivably, have not yet read Jo Hamilton’s new book “Why Are You Here, Mrs Hamilton?“. I am going to start it as soon as I can and will report back when I can. Meanwhile Scott Darlington’s book, “Signed, Sealed, Destroyed“, continues to do well and is definitely worth downloading or ordering from Amazon, Waterstones or your local independent bookstore.
Are your lawyers (over)charging you?
The Horizon Compensation Advisory Board has written to the Bar Standards Board and the Solicitors Regulation Authority about the possibility that “problematic charging” of compensation applicants by their lawyers has taken or is taking place. You can see the letters and responses here.
If you have concerns about the fees you may being charged either as you go or as a percentage of any compensation the Bar Standards Board (who deal with barristers) and the SRA (who deal with solicitors) are now at least alive to the issue and have provided confidential contact details for anyone who would like to get in touch.
I would recommend you read all the correspondence first, but if you want to contact the BSB the email address is:
contactus@barstandardsboard.org.uk
The SRA’s is: Joshua.Bold@sra.org.uk
Other news
Tom Witherow in the Times has calculated that 345 people have died before receiving full redress via the government and Post Office compensation schemes with 3,700 people still waiting. He also reports that 440 former Subpostmasters or people directly affected by the scandal have died since the inquiry began in 2022.
The BBC has a great interview with Harjinder Butoy who spent longer in prison than any other victim of the Post Office scandal: “I need someone to be punished“.
The Independent has some interesting quotes from Neil Hudgell whose firm Hudgell Solicitors has helped 300 Subpostmaster get a total of £170m in compensation, not least that it could take “two to three years” for all compensation schemes to be settled.
Right, I need to find a clean shirt to iron so I look relatively presentable tomorrow. Then, bed.
Keep well
Nick
I am (still) writing a new book about the Post Office scandal called The Great Post Office Cover-Up. You can put your money down now for a copy which will arrive after Sir Wyn Williams’ final report. Buying a pre-publication copy of the hardback (£15 + P&P) or paperback (£10 + P&P) will be cheaper than the post publication price, help support an independent publisher (by buying direct) and offer you the opportunity to join my secret email mailing list. For more info about the book, click here!