Information Rights Team
Post Office Limited
Ground Floor
Finsbury Dials
20 Finsbury Street
London EC2Y 9AQ
Your reference:
Our reference: FOI2022/00384
John O'Sullivan
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx.xxx
-
10 August 2022
Dear
Mr O'Sullivan,
Freedom of Information Request – FOI2022/00384
I am writing in response to your email received by Post Office Limited (“
Post Office”) on 6
June, which has been dealt with under the terms of the Freedom of Information Act 2000
(“
FOIA”).
In your email you have requested the following information:
“Can you please confirm if Post Office staff who are called to give evidence to this
Inquiry have or wil be given legal assistance in preparing statements?
How many have been so called?
Has the Post Office contacted any former employees or members of other
Organisations to offer help and advice in drawing up statements for this Inquiry?”
We can confirm that Post Office holds the information you have requested, and we are
able to provide some of this information to you.
Post Office staff who have been called to give evidence to the Inquiry, will be given legal
assistance. Post Office has not contacted any former employees or members of other
organisations proactively to offer help and advice.
We have and will respond to former employees who contact Post Office, providing
appropriate information which enables them to assist the Inquiry’s work. This does not
include provision of legal advice or involvement with drawing up any statements they may
wish to make, and Post Office has shared its approach with the Inquiry.
However, we are withholding the number of staff called to give evidence under section
32(2)(b) of the FOI Act, which relates to any document created by a person conducting an
inquiry or arbitration, for the purposes of the inquiry or arbitration.
Disclosure of this information would constitute a breach of the Chair’s General Restriction
Order (‘GRO’), dated 24 November 2021. Paragraph 11 of the GRO prohibits the
disclosure of
“any information and documents included within” a request pursuant to Rule
9 of the Inquiry Rules 2006, and this includes the information you have requested.
The GRO can be found at the following link:
Public
https://www.postofficehorizoninquiry.org.uk/key-documents/general-restriction-order-24-
november-2021
Section 32(2)(b) is an absolute exemption and does not require a public interest test to be
carried out.
If you are dissatisfied with the handling of this response, you do have a right to request an
internal review. You can do this by writing to the address below stating your reasons for
your internal review request.
Information Rights Team
Post Office Limited
Ground Floor
Finsbury Dials
20 Finsbury Street
London
EC2Y 9AQ
xxxxxxxxxxx.xxxxxx@xxxxxxxxxx.xx.xx Yours sincerely,
Andy Jennings
Information Rights Team
xxxxxxxxxxx.xxxxxx@xxxxxxxxxx.xx.xx
https://corporate.postoffice.co.uk/en/governance/access-to-information/access-to-information/ Post Office Limited is committed to protecting your privacy, information about how
we do this can be found on our website at www.postoffice.co.uk/privacy
