Dear Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy,

As part of its inquiry into the Post Office and Horizon, the Chair of the BEIS Select Committee asked its former CEO, Paula Vennells, for information concerning the involvement of UKGI officials in discussions about Horizon at Board level. In her letter of response (24th June 2020) Ms Vennells, stated:

‘The UKGI directors were fully engaged in the discussions...The present UKGI incumbent director...was fully engaged on the Board, sub- committee and with ministers and lawyers at BEIS’ (p17, para 60 in response to Question 16).

i) Please can you confirm the identity of the law firm who were involved on behalf of BEIS with which the UKGI POL representative was ‘fully engaged’.

ii) Please can you confirm if a representative from this law firm gave advice or was involved in discussions which led to POL’s application to recuse Mr Justice Fraser on 21st March 2019?

iii) Please can you confirm if a representative from this law firm gave advice or was involved in discussions which led to POL’s appeal against the Judge’s refusal to recuse himself delivered by POL on 9th April 2019.

iv) Did any lawyer representing the Department for BEIS attend any meetings of the POL GLO sub-Committee from the time of its inauguration in March 2018 until the conclusion of the litigation in December 2019?

Yours faithfully,

Eleanor Shaikh