Will the Clarke advice be made public?
Morning!
There is so much going on at the moment and I haven’t kept you properly up to speed. I am sorry.
The reason for my neglect is because I am going to be in court today applying for the release of the Clarke advice. This has required a considerable amount of preparation which I haven’t really had the time to do. I was given some significant information last night, which was when I was hoping to write a secret email. Instead I have been re-working what I would like to say in court today.
Once my application has been dealt with, I can sit down and get on with my usual business of live-tweeting proceedings.
Today the court will be considering contempt charges against two barristers working pro bono for Seema Misra, Tracy Felstead and Janet Skinner.
I’ll start live-tweeting what’s going on at court from around 10.15am this morning (read them here), but there will be a break whilst the court is dealing with my application.
Post Office Horizon IT inquiry
Yesterday Sir Wyn Williams’ inquiry into the Post Office Horizon IT scandal issued a call for evidence.
It said:
“while Sir Wyn will welcome evidence about all aspects of the use of Horizon which is relevant to the terms of reference of the Inquiry he would like to make clear his wish to receive a body of evidence relating to the human impact of the Horizon dispute“
adding:
“to ensure the transparency of the Inquiry, information that it receives will be published on an additional website for public viewing whenever that is legally permissible and publication not inconsistent with other competing factors such data protection, confidentiality, and privacy.“
More here.
Eagle-eyed readers have noticed that the scope of the inquiry was altered on Tuesday. The inquiry cannot take into account:
“Post Office Ltd’s prosecution function, matters of criminal law, the Horizon group damages settlement, the conduct of current or future litigation relating to Horizon and/or the engagement or findings of any other supervisory or complaints mechanisms, including in the public sector, are outside the Inquiry‘s scope.”
This would therefore mean that proceedings currently ongoing at the Court of Appeal are outside scope as, of course, are mechanisms such the complaint to the Parliamentary Ombudsman.
Complaint to the Parliamentary Ombudsman
By sheer coincidence, the Justice for Subpostmasters Alliance yesterday submitted their complaint to the Parliamentary Ombudsman. Their complaint (and claim for proper redress from the government for its part in the Post Office Horizon IT scandal) has been rejected by BEIS, the government department which runs the Post Office.
Kevan Jones MP has therefore submitted the complaint to the Parliamentary Ombudsman on behalf of the Subpostmasters. You can read more about this, and the complaint, on the JFSA website here.
Thanks
Right I’ve got to get my suit on, get my son to athletics club in the pouring rain and then make my way up to the Royal Courts of Justice to see what the day brings.
Thanks so much to everyone who has donated and offered words of support in recent weeks. I spent several hundred pounds of your hard cash on transcripts for 18/19 November. This will serve as a public record of what has been an extraordinary start to these historic Court of Appeal proceedings. As part of my application today, I have asked that the court make further transcripts available at the public expense.
Remember – live tweets here – full update on the Post Office trial website (and the secret email!) as soon as possible after proceedings are over. I am hoping this will be before 7.30pm as I have an evening engagement. If I can’t get anything out before then it’ll be with you tomorrow
Onwards!
Nick