POST OFFICE: HORIZON SCANDAL – SIR WYN WILLIAMS INQUIRY – CONFIRMATIONS OF WAIVER OF LEGAL PRIVILEGE
Further to LTB 479/21 dated 11thNovember. A key output from the preliminary hearing held on 8thNovember was that the Chair of the Inquiry, Sir Wyn Williams, issued a statement calling for a response from Post Office, Fujitsu, BEIS and UKGI regarding a waiver of legal privilege when giving evidence.
The deadline for responses from the four entities was 4pm on 15thNovember. On 16th November, Sir Wyn reported that all four parties had responded within the timescale specified. He added:
“The response of POL, on any view, goes a very long way towards meeting the request I made of them. It is clear to me that in respect of many of the most crucial lines of investigation for the Inquiry POL has waived legal professional privilege.”
“There is now a great deal of work to be done in organising and obtaining disclosure of relevant documents (including documents which until now have been the subject of legal professional privilege).”
In essence, Post Office, Fujitsu, BEIS and UKGI have voluntarily agreed to waive legal privilege for the purpose of the inquiry. This means, for Post Office in particular, potentially thousands of documents going back over 20 years will now be accessible to Sir Wyn and his team for thorough scrutiny to try and uncover the full story behind this long-running scandal and find out who is ultimately responsible.
The full statement and the responses from Post Office, Fujitsu, BEIS and UKGI can be accessed via the following link:
In addition, Post Office published a press release:
We obviously welcome this development and any further activities / updates relating to the Horizon inquiry will be reported as appropriate.
Yours sincerely,
Andy Furey
Assistant Secretary
CWU Eastern No5 Branch 
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