ANNOUNCEMENT : ALL OF ROYAL MAIL'S EMPLOYMENT POLICIES (AGREEMENTS) AT A GLANCE (Updated 2021)... HERE

ANNOUNCEMENT : PLEASE BE AWARE WE ARE NOT ON FACEBOOK AT ALL!


Post Office inquiry chair seeks waiver on legal privilege

Latest Post Office® news.This is an open forum.
Post Reply
TrueBlueTerrier
FORUM ADMINISTRATOR
Posts: 69390
Joined: 30 Dec 2006, 10:29
Gender: Male
Location: Proud to be part of the Union

Post Office inquiry chair seeks waiver on legal privilege

Post by TrueBlueTerrier »

https://www.lawgazette.co.uk/news/post- ... 66.article

The judge chairing the statutory inquiry into the Post Office IT scandal has confirmed he will ask the key organisations in the episode to hand over legal documents.

Sir Wyn Williams said he would be ‘seeking a waiver of privilege’ in respect of legal privileged material relevant to the inquiry’s terms of reference. This request is being made to Post Office Limited, IT supplier Fujitsu, the Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy and the UK government, and covers all material from the date of the first pilot of the Horizon IT system to the announcement of an inquiry in February 2020.

The request was made immediately following Monday’s preliminary hearing and the parties named have until 4pm on 15 November to respond.

Campaigners for the former Post Office employees wrongly accused of theft and fraud will welcome this latest development. They have long argued that the state-owned Post Office and government should make full disclosures about what advice was given in the lead-up to the prosecutions, and any attempt to resist Williams’ request would reflect badly on those responsible.

The inquiry seeks to understand and acknowledge what went wrong in relation to Horizon, leading to the civil proceedings in Bates and others v Post Office Limited and the quashing of criminal convictions. It will also assess whether Post Office Ltd has learned lessons from the criticisms made by Mr Justice Fraser in his judgments. There has been uncertainty about the extent to which the role of lawyers will come under scrutiny. The government has submitted that this would be too time-consuming and should be conducted in another forum, but victims argue that legal advice was central to the scandal and should be investigated.
All post by me in Green are Admin Posts.
Any post in any other colour is my own responsibility.
If you like a news story I posted please click the link to show support
Any news stories you can't post - PM me with a link
"Employers are always seeking more productivity from workers, without considering the human factor, the worker's age, the weather conditions and the intense heat. We need to intervene before it's too late, reducing working hours and the load carried by workers, because it's impossible to sustain the rhythm they're forced to work at for many years."

Post Reply