Public hearings of the Post Office Inquiry begin again next week – with nine solicitors set to give oral evidence in the coming two months.

The inquiry moves onto the final elements of the Post Office scandal, examining in detail the issues of governance, redress and how the organisation and others responded as it emerged that hundreds of prosecutions of sub-postmasters may not have been safe.

The upcoming two phases will start on 9 April with evidence from former Post Office operator and founder of the Justice for Subpostmasters Alan Bates, whose story was one of the main focuses of the ITV drama Mr Bates v The Post Office.

Hearings will finish in July when the inquiry will hear from former government ministers whose portfolios included the Post Office.

In between, more than a dozen lawyers will give evidence about the role they played in advising the Post Office up to and including the Bates litigation which finally blew open the Horizon IT scandal.

Solicitor witnesses include the current Post Office head of legal (dispute resolution and brand) Rodric Williams, former general counsels Susan Crichton and Jane MacLeod and current general counsel Ben Foat. Another former GC, Chris Aujard, is now based in New Zealand but will give evidence in April.

Hugh Flemington, previously head of legal, and Jarnail Singh, who also gave evidence last year, are the former in-house solicitors due to appear. External solicitors Martin Smith (formerly with Cartwright King) and Tom Beezer and Andrew Parsons – both partners with Womble Bond Dickinson – are also listed as witnesses.

Barristers Harry Bowyer, Simon Clarke, Brian Altman KC, Anthony de Garr Robinson KC and Lord Grabiner KC are all due to appear, along with retired Court of Appeal judge Sir Anthony Hooper.

The inquiry is also gathering witness statements from a large number of other individuals in addition to those scheduled to give oral evidence. Chair Sir Wyn Williams may call additional witnesses to appear if guided by the evidence he receives.

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