And lawyers for the 555 to meet the government this week

Good morning

I’ll try to keep it brief.

In 15 minutes’ time, Post Office CEO Nick Read will face the BEIS Select Committee MPs. It will be the first time the Post Office CEO has been questioned on camera. I hope the MPs make a good job of it and Read says something interesting.

At 10.30am Tom Cooper, a Post Office Board member representing the government’s interests will be questioned by the same panel of MPs. He will have minister Paul Scully and BEIS apparatchik Paul Scully alongside him. Cooper was appointed in 2018 and sat on the Post Office board whilst it tried to sink the Postmasters civil litigation. He was not in the room when decisions on litigation tactics (eg the recusal application) were made due to a perceived conflict of interest between the government and legal process (more on this in my book).

The session can be watched here and is usually available directly afterwards (via the same link). The transcript normally appears a day or two later.

555’s lawyers to meet the government

A debate about compensation in the House of Lords, initiated yesterday by Dame Joan Bakewell produced one new nugget of information. Lord Callanan, the Lords’ BEIS minister revealed that lawyers for the 555 civil litigant Subpostmasters, (who have now been campaigning for more than two years) will soon meet with the government. His exact words were:

“this compensation settlement that was reached in a civil action was in full and final settlement of the claims. However, having said that, my colleague Paul Scully has met with them many times and has said that we are in active discussions with them to see what more could be done. Indeed, officials are meeting this week with lawyers representing them to discuss it.”

I understand from a well-informed source that these unnamed lawyers are Howe and Co, who were previously instructed by the JFSA and now represent 150 Subpostmasters at the Statutory Inquiry. The meeting, I am told, will simply to be to see if the noises Scully has been making for the past few weeks are backed up by any serious intent within government. The meeting itself is actually scheduled for next week, not this week, as the good Lord said.

Times for Tim to shine

Tim Brentnall, a lovely chap who I’ve got to know reasonably well since his conviction was quashed last year, gave a 25 minute interview to Times Radio last night. As I said on twitter, Tim’s calm and simple telling of his kafka-esque nightmare made it all the more compelling.

He was given the space to explain exactly how a completely blameless person could find themselves in a Crown Court facing going to prison and pleading guilty to a crime they didn’t commit. Tim’s telling of the tale and how he was eventually able to get his conviction quashed filled me with hope. I think he is going to be one of a number of very good advocates of the Subpostmasters’ cause going forwards. You can listen to it here.

Tony and Karl’s latest salvos

Karl Flinders from Computer Weekly has written up the letter initiated by Chris Head and sent round parliament by his MP Kate Osborne. Ms Osborne’s Early Day Motion now has 44 signatures. I am sure Chris would want me to ask you to ask your MP to consider signing it.

Tony Collins has drawn our attention to a Sunday Mirror article reporting that Alan Bates wants to launch a fresh legal action against the government to claim the £300m he says is owed to the 555 claimant group. Colliins says that according to the Mirror “Bates seeks a legal firm to help him have the settlement agreement set aside as fundamentally flawed.”

This seems to throw back to the statement Bates made during the 14 Dec 2021 Select Committee hearing that:

“we are announcing we have an open contract available to any law firm that wants to pick up our case to have the settlement agreement set aside.”

If the Sunday Mirror article is correct it seems Bates does not yet have a legal firm to take on the government. In his latest circular to JFSA members he makes no mention of this, but he does state that he is meeting with the Parliamentary Ombudsman to discuss the progress of the complaint he filed more than a year ago.

Incidentally, tomorrow marks the two year anniversary of the Metropolitan Police investigation into two Fujitsu employees who may or may not have given incorrect evidence to the courts about the workings of Horizon.

The judge in the civil litigation had such “grave concerns” about the evidence they had submitted to civil and criminal courts, he passed a file to the DPP. The DPP gave it to the Met, where it is, I am told, being diligently and thoroughly investigated. Sadly, nothing has come of it in two long years, despite a lot of documentary evidence being available to them. I wonder what the hold up is?

All best

Nick

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