Mark Baker

My take on the prosecution of two solicitors involved in the Post Office scandal by the Solicitors Regulation Authority: postofficescandal.uk/post/macleod-a…

In 2015 Jane MacLeod, then Post Office general counsel, threatened Computer Weekly. When will she face the music? #PostOfficeScandal computerweekly.com/news/366645057…

The Post Office has claimed it should not make public crucial documents written six years ago, partly on the grounds doing so could compromise its capacity to receive a fair trial, should it ever face criminal proceedings over the Horizon IT scandal. postofficescandal.uk/post/the-battl…

Post Office Horizon IT Inquiry report delayed yet again: postofficescandal.uk/post/post-offi… #PostOfficeScandal

@stugoo17 I seem to remember that in 2019 Justice Fraser ruled that all the Postmaster Contracts were “relational “ contracts and as such a duty to act in good faith was implied into the contract. I’m sure that doesn’t mean one party can impose pay changes on the other without negotiation

#PostOfficeScandal November 2024 'Post Office Chair, Nigel Railton, has today (13 November 2024) set out an ambitious five-year Transformation Plan for the Post Office to deliver a ‘New Deal for Postmasters’ that significantly increases their total annual income through revenue sharing and strengthens their role in the direction of the organisation. The ‘New Deal for Postmasters’ follows a Strategic Review initiated by Mr Railton in May. The Transformation Plan sets out an ambition to deliver a quarter of a billion pounds boost to Postmasters’ income by 2030.' Today - cheque's lost in the post 🤷‍♂️ 📩🔻📩🔻📩 @voiceofthePM @NigelRailton @PostOffice @PostOfficeNews @CWU @CWUPostmaster @brentjay1 @richardtrinder1 @liambyrnemp

Here's a bit more info... postofficescandal.uk/post/shoreham-…

#PostOfficeScandal #NFSP Following the NFSP ransomware attack, the Post Office has "paused" all email to and from the Fed "as a precaution." A precaution against what, precisely❓They have been paying for that silence since 2015. This merely makes it official — and, for once, free of charge‼️ @PostOffice @NFSP_UK @PostOfficeNews @Karlfl @CWUPostmaster @voiceofthePM @nickwallis @NigelRailton computerweekly.com/news/366643958…

Thoughts on the Post Office's top secret Project Brisbane from Professor Richard Moorhead (and yet more on Brian Altman KC's curious role in this scandal). open.substack.com/pub/richardmoo…

Former Post Office general counsel Jane MacLeod "significant individual" in criminal investigation. postofficescandal.uk/post/post-offi… #postofficescandal

@ElCShaikh Thanks El it’s been bugging me why the name “Brisbane”? These Antipodeans clearly still have a story to tell. There is something rotten in the state of Denmark going on here

@CWUPostmaster Indeed, Ben Foat trained in Brisbane…

More information surfaces about Project Brisbane; as yet, just the tip of a very big iceberg… postofficescandal.uk/post/more-info…

In June the Post Office will be challenging the Information Commissioner at Tribunal because it is adamant it will not disclose a short redacted piece of information. The ICO ordered it to do so on grounds of Public Interest. We’re starting to see why…. postofficescandal.uk/?noptin_ns=ema…

#PostOfficeScandal #CAPTURE #Accountability #CourtofAppeal #CCRC #LegalEthics #HumanRights The Horizon Compensation Advisory Board has written to Post Office chair Nigel Railton, and it does not make comfortable reading. (See below). In a letter dated 15 May, HCAB Chair Christopher Hodges OBE dismantles the Post Office's justification for contesting Capture conviction appeals point by point — and does so with the precision of someone who has run out of patience. The core contradiction is simple. Railton told the Business and Trade Select Committee that Capture convictions should be overturned en masse. The Post Office is simultaneously arguing to the Court of Appeal that they should not be. Hodges calls this exactly what it is: "inexplicable and unconscionable." On the role of lawyers, Hodges is pointed but careful. He notes that those advising the Post Office Board have been involved in the post-Hamilton defence of convictions, and that some come from the same chambers now under inquiry scrutiny. He doesn't question their propriety. He simply asks whether they "come to these matters with the appearance of sufficient independence." The message to the Board is unambiguous: legal advice is advice, not a binding decision, and it should be "subjected to a degree of common sense — which has not, in our view, yet happened." The Post Office has apologised. It says it has changed. It says it can be trusted. Hodges' letter asks, quietly and forensically, what any of those statements mean if this is how the organisation continues to act. The Post Office continues to be deeply, profoundly sorry. Just never that sorry. Words are cheap - unless of course you engage external Crisis PR Agencies, in addition to the 26 directly employed in the POL Comms Team‼️ computerweekly.com/news/366642931… @PostOffice @PostOfficeNews @liambyrnemp @CommonsBTC @HouseofCommons @UKHouseofLords @premnsikka @CastletonLee @BBCEmmaSimpson @SkyNewsAdele @SkyNews @Karlfl @nickwallis @The_Real_JSP @hudgellsol @NeilHudgell @marksweney @rbrooks45 @Rebecca_SPaul @NAOorguk

"The Overturn, a new independent documentary series, is not like this. In every episode, it examines a particular UK criminal case, but not for thrills. This show is about the miscarriage of justice." ✍️ Miranda Sawyer bit.ly/3NuXjZh

The Overturn episode 1 - Robin Garbutt: Innocent Robbery Victim or Cold-Blooded Killer? thejusticegap.com/the-overturn-e…

Post Office Horizon Scandal: 1,400 Victims Still in Limbo — Evidence "Cannot Be Found" computerweekly.com/news/366640853…

#PostOfficeScandal #NFSP THE NATIONAL FEDERATION OF SUBPOSTMASTERS: A VERY GENEROUS ARRANGEMENT Or: How To Spend £30 Million of Public Money Buying Silence and Call It "Representation" The National Federation of Subpostmasters — that fearless champion of the nation's Sub-Postmasters which, when its members were being wrongly prosecuted, bankrupted and imprisoned, bravely... checks notes... did absolutely NOTHING. This, it transpires, was not mere incompetence but contractual obligation. The NFSP's 2015 Grant Funding Agreement with Post Office Limited — a snip at £30 million-plus of publicly-backed funds over 15 years — contained "restrictive covenants" prohibiting media campaigns, public protests, funding litigation, or indeed any behaviour "materially detrimental" to Post Office interests. An organisation nominally representing Sub-Postmasters was contractually forbidden from representing Sub-postmasters. One imagines the irony was lost on nobody except the NFSP's leadership. Mr Justice Fraser was characteristically direct, finding the NFSP "not remotely independent of the Post Office" and noting it had "put its own members' interests well below its own." A 2013 email from then-General Secretary George Thomson rather gave the game away: "If necessary, NFSP will drop Union badge to sign contract." The badge duly dropped. The cheques duly cleared. THE PROCUREMENT QUESTION NOBODY ASKED The agreement was styled as a "grant" — conveniently sidestepping the competitive tendering requirements of public procurement law. Yet the Post Office wasn't dispensing charity. It was purchasing two very specific services: (1) professional representation of its network; and (2) guaranteed organisational silence. That, in any rational analysis, is a public services contract requiring open competition under the Public Contracts Regulations 2015. No advertisement. No tender. No competition. No transparency. Just a quiet arrangement between paymasters and the paid. THE VALUE FOR MONEY QUESTION Which brings us to the matter HM Treasury and/or the Public Accounts Committee might wish to examine with some urgency. Post Office Limited is government-owned. This was effectively public money. Did spending £30 million-plus to fund an organisation contractually prevented from challenging Post Office decisions — during a period when those decisions were destroying innocent lives — represent value for money? Does it satisfy Treasury rules on Managing Public Money, which require that expenditure achieves "good value for the Exchequer as a whole"? Or did the British taxpayer unwittingly bankroll the institutional gagging of the very people who needed a voice most? THE DEMOCRACY QUESTION The NFSP's constitution, meanwhile, prevents ordinary members from voting directly — requiring instead "board-approved intermediaries," with Directors retaining absolute veto power. Former National Executive Officer Mark Baker called this arrangement "nothing more than a sham." It would take a braver commentator than this one to disagree. THE EXISTENTIAL QUESTION The Procurement Act 2023 will finally require competitive tendering for Sub-Postmaster representation. The NFSP must now compete on merit — a novel experience for an organisation whose primary qualification was its willingness not to rock the boat while it sank. Sub-Postmasters deserved a representative body that would fight for them. They got one contractually bound to silence. The invoice, naturally, went to the taxpayer. PS. Note the magnaminous advice below assisting @PostOffice in their fight against 555 SubPostmasters in the Bates vs. The Post Office GLO Litigation. 🤷‍♂️ @NFSP_UK @voiceofthePM @CWUnews @CWUPostmasters @CWUPostmaster @CommonsBTC @liambyrnemp @CommonsPAC @hmtreasury @RachelReevesMP @darrenpjones @DavidDavisMP @premnsikka @UKHouseofLords @HouseofCommons @NigelRailton @PostOfficeNews @marksweney @Karlfl @BBCEmmaSimpson