plus Altman’s General Review – fisked!
Hi there
Just a quick one to keep you updated with what’s going on in Post Office land.
Firstly – the Post Office Horizon IT Inquiry only has four witnesses this week. We got wind something was brewing on Friday when Sir Wyn Williams warned everyone to keep a close eye on witness scheduling for this current week.
It turns out there has been a big disclosure by Fujitsu which has thrown something of a spanner in the works. I understand the Chair of the Inquiry, Sir Wyn Williams, thinks it is significant enough to switch things around.
Witnesses due to speak this week who might well be able to help shed some light on the documents disclosed by Fujitsu are being pushed back so the inquiry has time to examine them properly.
After this week the Inquiry is taking a break until Valentine’s Day. This is apparently due to venue logistics.
Altman Review fisked
I mentioned the 15 October 2013 Altman Advice in my last newsletter. Its proper name is the General Review. I have published a searchable version of the document and a light fisking of its contents on postofficescandal.uk here. Don’t forget you can get every post I put up on Post Office Scandal sent to you via email if you put your address in the little box on the webpage. This is a free service. Your emails are kept secure by me and Andrew (the webmaster who built the site) and will not be used for any purpose other than informing you about the Post Office scandal, much as with this newsletter.
I have also managed to confirm (indirectly, the Bar Standards Board won’t tell me anything) that the author of the 15 October 2013 General Review, Brian Altman KC, is under investigation by the BSB, along with an unknown number of other barristers. Don’t know exactly what for, though.
Post Office compensation info
The Post Office has put some new stats (well – new as of 10 January) on its website on two different pages. The first deals with Historical Shortfall Scheme cases and payments.
The second deals with compensation for those who have overturned convictions.
Both should be read in the context of Sir Wyn Williams’ statement on compensation posted on 9 Jan.
Podcast reminder
If you haven’t given it a try why not have a listen to Episode 26 of Investigating the Post Office Scandal, which can be found here.
It’s called Alan Bates No.B.E because Alan Bates, founder of the Justice for Subpostmasters Alliance turned down an OBE for ‘services to justice’. You can also search for Investigating the Post Office Scandal on itunes and Spotify. If you then click ‘follow’ you will get every new episode delivered to your device.
I don’t think there will be a new podcast episode or newsletter review at the end of this week as the witness list has been eviscerated, but Rebecca (my podcast co-host) and I will be reading the transcripts over the weekend and might do something next week.
If you happen to be watching any of the inquiry (which you can do here), let us know if you see or hear anything of interest. Hopefully we’ll get some good guests on during the next couple of fallow weeks.
Welcome
There has been a flurry of new subscribers to the secret email newsletter recently. Thank you so much for your kind donations. They and you are very welcome. Do please hit reply to this newsletter if you want to tell me about your interest in this story – it will go straight to my email inbox. As with any correspondence I receive, it will be treated as private and confidential, and I would love to hear from you!
Best regards
Nick