LTB 208/21 - Post Office: Postmasters: Horizon Inquiry Given Statutory Status

[POSTMAN]

https://www.cwu.org/ltb/ltb-208-21-post ... ry-status/

LTB 208/21 – Post Office: Postmasters: Horizon Inquiry Given Statutory Status
No. 208/2021

19th May 2021

Dear Colleagues

POST OFFICE: POSTMASTERS: HORIZON INQUIRY GIVEN STATUTORY STATUS

Further to LTB 173/21 dated 27th April. Paul Scully, BEIS Minister with responsibility for Post Offices announced in the House of Commons today that the Horizon Inquiry currently being undertaken by retired judge Sir Wyn Williams will become statutory from 1st June 2021, meaning it will have the legal power to compel witnesses to give evidence. Essentially, the powers, remit and scope of the inquiry have been extended, a position we welcome and indeed called for. Therefore it is pleasing to see the Government has finally listened, albeit belatedly. The full statement to the House is attached to this LTB. Contained within the statement is a revised Terms of Reference for the inquiry. Also attached is a Government press release and a Post Office communication from Nick Read, CEO published this afternoon.

This positive development comes after continued lobbying and pressure from a significant number of MPs, the mainstream media and journalists including Nick Wallis, the Justice for Subpostmasters Alliance (JFSA) and other key stakeholders including the CWU. Branches will be aware we have consistently adopted the position of participating in the inquiry (as the only vehicle open to us), whilst continuing to vociferously advocate that it doesn’t go far enough and should be given statutory status in order to really get to the bottom of what happened to the victims of this terrible injustice and to make sure this can never happen again. Indeed we highlighted this position in our written submission to Sir Wyn Williams’ inquiry dated 23rd February 2021. We therefore welcome today’s announcement and will continue to work with Sir Wyn Williams’ team to help the victims get justice and to bring to account those responsible. The inquiry, which was established last year, will now be extended for a further year and will report its findings in the autumn of 2022, although the Minister has asked for an interim progress report from Sir Wyn Williams, to be published this summer.

The announcement was also welcomed by every MP from across all major parties speaking today in the House of Commons in a session that lasted for 45 minutes. The clear message was that MPs were very happy with the Minister’s change of heart in terms of the statutory status of the inquiry, although there was some criticism that it had taken him so long to change the nature and scope, particularly as he gave a statement in the House on 27th April, 4 days after the Court of Appeal’s decision to quash the convictions of 39 Postmasters saying that nothing would change. Seema Malhotra, Labour Shadow BEIS Minister, specifically asked the question as to what had happened since that date when Paul Scully was still insisting that the inquiry would be non-statutory with the consistent message that a full statutory inquiry would take too long to report its findings. However shortly after the Court of Appeal’s judgement, seemingly Sir Wyn Williams himself asked the Minister for more powers and it appears that after further consideration the Minister finally gave in to pressure from many fronts, which led to the turnaround announced today.

Read more at the link and for attachments.