A significant period of time has elapsed since my last update to witnesses and those affected by the HBOS Reading affair, so I want to inform you of the progress of my Review in that time.
We have received and considered the evidence from a great number of witnesses and hundreds of thousands of documents. However, as evidence has been received, new questions and areas of enquiry have arisen.
In previous updates I have referred to the fact that the Dobbs Review is a non-statutory inquiry meaning that I do not have powers to compel witnesses to give evidence. I have to rely, therefore, on both their willingness and availability to give evidence to the Review. The result is that progress has been slowed by awaiting the availability of witnesses and by delays in receiving their evidence or relevant documentation.
This means that we have not yet received all of the evidence necessary to fulfil my commitment to ‘leave no stone unturned.’ I now expect to complete the final witness interviews in the first half of this year. There are additional uncertainties, also beyond our control, that may yet affect timing. We have recently received important additional documentation that is of substantial relevance to the Review, and I cannot rule out the possibility that we may yet still receive further material.
When we have finished taking evidence, there will still be a significant amount of work required to draw all the evidence together and reach my conclusions before I submit the Report to Lloyds Banking Group.
This Review is a complex exercise. My Report will include a full explanation of our approach, the challenges, and the efforts made to ensure that progress is as efficient but as thorough as possible.
My team and I are doing all we can to conclude the Report as quickly as we can, consistent with a thorough and comprehensive approach to fulfil the promise I made at the start of the Review.
Dame Linda Dobbs
I want to update you on the progress of my Review into Lloyds Banking Group’s handling of the HBOS Reading affair. We have encountered significant delays in concluding interviews with a number of important witnesses. This is having a material impact on the timing of the Review.
Previously, I indicated that we hoped to be able to complete witness interviews during the course of the summer. However, it is now clear that the interviewing process will need to run into early next year. There are two main reasons for this. First, we have identified some additional witnesses that we need to interview. Second, it has proved difficult to schedule interviews with certain witnesses – some of whom have heavy professional commitments and not all are based in the UK.
As the Dobbs Review is a non-statutory inquiry, I do not have powers of compulsion and so I have to rely on the willingness and availability of witnesses to give evidence to the Review.
I know this is little consolation to those of you who suffered as a result of the HBOS Reading fraud and want to see the Review completed. I made a promise to do a thorough investigation. In order to make good that promise, those witnesses need to be interviewed. As already indicated, I will include a detailed explanation in my report of our approach and the work involved.
When we have finished interviewing witnesses, there will still be a significant amount of work required to draw together all of the evidence and reach my conclusions before I submit the report to Lloyds Banking Group.
Dame Linda Dobbs
We are now approaching the final stages of my Review into Lloyds Banking Group’s handling of the HBOS Reading affair.
I know that many of you affected by the HBOS Reading fraud have been frustrated at the length of time it has been taking.
My finished report will include a detailed explanation of the complexities involved in carrying out this inquiry, which we believe to be one of the largest independent financial inquiries ever conducted.
Clearly the COVID pandemic has affected progress, in particular our ability to schedule interviews as quickly as we would have liked to.
The interviewing process has been time-consuming for all concerned. Witnesses are entitled to legal representation, they have needed time to prepare and there are significant amounts of documentation involved. In addition, some witnesses live abroad, many have heavy commitments and, as a non-statutory inquiry, I do not have powers of compulsion. These and other factors have all impacted our ability to schedule interviews in a timely manner.
My report will also include details of the time-consuming process in gaining access to documents covered by legal professional privilege. These communications would not normally be provided to an inquiry. This material is highly sensitive and so the process for reviewing the documents has been complicated. This has also had a significant impact on the scheduling of interviews.
We now expect to finish the witness interviews during the course of the summer. LBG are also being asked to respond to specific questions that have arisen. I will then need to draw together the various strands of evidence to reach my final conclusions. This is a complicated process and we will be working as fast as possible to complete it.
I will submit my report to Lloyds Banking Group as soon as possible after this process has taken place.
Dame Linda Dobbs
I want to update witnesses and those affected by the HBOS Reading fraud about progress on my Review.
I had hoped that we would complete all the witness interviews by the middle of this year and that I would then be able to submit my report to Lloyds Banking Group as soon as possible after that.
Unfortunately, this has not proved possible. The interviewing process is now likely to run into the first quarter of next year. There are a number of reasons for this.
The COVID pandemic has inevitably affected the process and our ability to schedule interviews in a timely manner.
Unusually for an inquiry, we have been granted access to numerous documents covered by legal professional privilege, that is communications between lawyers and client which are protected by law (save in very limited circumstances) from disclosure. As the material is highly sensitive, the process for reviewing the documentation has been complicated, time consuming and has affected the scheduling of interviews.
The Dobbs Review is a non-statutory inquiry and I do not have powers to compel witnesses to give evidence. Furthermore, each witness is entitled to have legal representation. As such, interviews are necessarily scheduled taking into account the availability of the witness.
As I have explained before, I intend to include a detailed account in my report of the work involved in carrying out this inquiry, which I believe is one of the largest and most extensive of its kind.
However, I am fully aware that for those who were affected by the HBOS Reading fraud, the imperative is to have answers. Whilst I and my team are working to complete the Review as speedily as possible, we must ensure that we leave no stone unturned in the course of our inquiry.
Yours,
Dame Linda Dobbs
Understandably, the victims of the HBOS Reading fraud, the witnesses who have given their time and energy to speak to the Dobbs Review and other interested parties are no doubt eager to know when my report into Lloyds Banking Group’s handling of the affair will be completed.
Subject to any constraints imposed by the government as a result of the COVID pandemic, I now expect that the interviewing of witnesses will be completed during the first half of 2021. I aim to submit my report as expeditiously as possible thereafter.
My report will include a detailed account of the work required in carrying out the Review so that readers can have a full understanding of what has been involved. As already noted, processing and analysing the voluminous documentation has been a complex, time-consuming, forensic process. To this day the Review is still receiving relevant documents. Some of the more recent substantial tranches of documentation are highly significant and may well have a material impact on my findings.
My aim is to finish the Review as speedily as possible. However, there can be no shortcuts if the investigation is to be thorough.
Those affected by the HBOS Reading fraud deserve no less.
Yours,
Dame Linda Dobbs
We have received a number of enquiries recently from interested parties about the timing of the Dobbs Review. Consequently, I would like to give you an update on where we have got to in the process.
When I was appointed to carry out this Review, the expectation was that it would be a relatively short exercise which could be finished in a matter of months - and certainly well under a year.
As we set out on our work and the scale and scope of the undertaking became clearer, it was apparent that it would take much longer to conduct the inquiry.
The Dobbs Review covers a period of eight years from Lloyds Banking Group (LBG) acquiring HBOS in January 2009 until the conclusion of the criminal trial in January 2017. However, because our terms of reference require us to assess not only what LBG knew about the HBOS Reading affair, but also what it “should have known about through reasonable diligence”, we need to examine issues extending back well before 2009 and in some cases as far back as 2002.
Unlike the police investigation, Operation Hornet, which focused on a small number of specific examples of fraud at HBOS Reading and took about six years to bring to trial, the Dobbs Review is examining the treatment of approximately 80 businesses that came under HBOS Reading as well as the involvement of LBG during the Police investigation and other important issues.
I intend to give a detailed account of the work involved in carrying out the Review when I submit my report so that readers can have a full understanding of what has been involved. What I can say at this stage is that we have processed and analysed in excess of 150,000 documents, some running to hundreds of pages each. The Review is still receiving additional material. We have interviewed approximately 100 witnesses, including those affected by the HBOS Reading fraud as well as some of the police officers involved in Operation Hornet. The final stage of our work will be the interviews with LBG executives and employees. We hope to complete all the interviews this autumn.
There are more than 50 barristers working on the Review. However, due to the complexity of the inquiry, it has been necessary to interview witnesses in a logical sequence, to avoid having to go back to witnesses for further evidence.
This has inevitably affected the timing. Each interview takes considerable preparation. For obvious reasons, we needed to interview complainant witnesses and the police before interviewing LBG executives and employees.
The timing of some of these interviews is outside our control. However, we still aim to submit our report to LBG during the winter of 2020.
I am conscious that people want answers to the questions we have been asked to address. Our intention has always been to finish our work as soon as possible, consistent with doing a thorough job. Anything less would be a disservice to those affected by the HBOS Reading fraud to whom I am extremely grateful for their understanding, patience and assistance.
Yours,
Dame Linda Dobbs