Paula Vennells claimed Horizon wasn’t mentioned on WhatsApp, Post Office inquiry hears | EUROtoday

Here are the principle speaking factors from the Post Office inquiry following the looks of Chris Jackson, a authorized consultant for the corporate, on Friday.

• Paula Vennells didn’t hand over WhatsApps to inquiry

Paula Vennells and different Post Office executives didn’t present their WhatsApps to the general public inquiry into the Horizon scandal after telling legal professionals the software program was by no means mentioned, it has emerged

Asked by Jason Beer KC if Post Office bosses weren’t requested by legal professionals to offer their WhatsApp messages and if legal professionals had not checked out their telephones, Mr Jackson replied: “We have tested whether it would be needed to be done by asking them questions as to… do they use WhatsApp and what do they use it for. And the response is, as I understand it… that it’s administrative.”

He mentioned he understood that bosses had not been utilizing WhatsApp to have “substantive discussions of the kind that are being canvassed at other inquiries at the moment”.

• Post Office disclosure ‘suboptimal’, lawyer admits

Mr Jackson has admitted the Post Office’s disclosure of paperwork to the general public inquiry has been “suboptimal”.

The inquiry was informed on December 19 that the Post Office’s disclosure of paperwork in relation to investigator Stephen Bradshaw’s proof was full, earlier than U-turning final Friday and saying 924 additional paperwork could be disclosed.

Jason Beer KC, inquiry counsel, mentioned it “doesn’t make for happy reading” that lots of of recent paperwork have been launched on the final minute, and requested Christopher Jackson if he agreed that the run of correspondence was “rather chaotic”.

Mr Jackson mentioned: “You used the phrase before the lunch break sub-optimal, it is clearly that. It must be frustrating, particularly for the inquiry, and for witnesses and I suspect for those at the other end trying to get it right.”

• ‘Inaccurate’ info offered to High Court

Jason Beer KC has questioned Chris Jackson on a variety of inaccuracies surrounding an digital disclosure questionnaire, or EDQ, submitted to the High Court for a 2019 group motion introduced by Alan Bates and 555 sub-postmasters.

The inquiry was informed the EDQ contained informaton that was both not correct or oversimplified, a press release of reality was signed by Andrew Parsons, a accomplice at Womble Bond Dickinson.

Asked by Mr Beer if info offered to the High Court and the claimants was inaccurate, Mr Jackson replied: “With what is known now, yes”.

• Documents marked ‘new material’ have been duplicates

Some “significant volumes” of the identical paperwork that have been marked “new material” led to delays to hearings.

Stephen Bradshaw, the Post Office investigator who gave proof to the inquiry on Thursday, was on account of give proof initially in November however his look was postponed, the inquiry counsel defined, “due to disclosure of what was said to be substantial new documents very shortly before he was due to give evidence”.

Jason Beer KC, counsel for the inquiry, informed the inquiry that Post Office had produced as much as 50 duplicated paperwork which had been marked as “new material”.

• Post Office apologises over disclosure delays

The Post Office has apologised over disclosure delays which has resulted within the postponement of hearings within the public inquiry into the Horizon scandal, Blathnaid Corless studies.

In his opening remarks to the inquiry, Chris Jackson, a accomplice at regulation agency Burges Salmon LLP, mentioned it was a Post Office precedence to enhance the discharge of paperwork.

The Post Office has beforehand been criticised for not disclosing sure paperwork in authorized proceedings towards sub-postmasters and to the inquiry.