The latest hearings of the Post Office inquiry kicked off
with a lengthy and scathing statement from Jason Beer KC, the barrister leading
the inquiry’s own legal team.
In it he described how, despite having been set strict
deadlines, the Post Office had produced thousands of relevant documents late,
many of them over the past week.
Beer said such late disclosures were something which the
Inquiry had become “extremely and unfortunately familiar with” since it began.
He described the situation as “sub optimal” and “highly
disruptive”.
He added that since the last set of hearings concluded in
February, more than 73,000 documents had been submitted.
However, the inquiry chair, Sir Wyn Williams, insisted the
hearings would continue as scheduled.
There would, he admitted, be “cases where documents have not
caught up with witnesses, so to speak, which is highly undesirable”.
But he insisted he was “unshakeable” in his belief that the
Inquiry should not last a day longer than strictly necessary.
Copyright: Post Office inquiry