Here are the main talking points from the Post Office inquiry following the appearance of Chris Jackson, a legal representative for the company, on Friday.

• Paula Vennells did not hand over WhatsApps to inquiry

Paula Vennells and other Post Office executives didn’t provide their WhatsApps to the public inquiry into the Horizon scandal after telling lawyers the software was never discussed, it has emerged

Asked by Jason Beer KC if Post Office bosses were not asked by lawyers to provide their WhatsApp messages and if lawyers had not looked at their phones, Mr Jackson replied: “We have tested whether it would be needed to be done by asking them questions as to… do they use WhatsApp and what do they use it for. And the response is, as I understand it… that it’s administrative.”

He said he understood that bosses had not been using WhatsApp to have “substantive discussions of the kind that are being canvassed at other inquiries at the moment”.

• Post Office disclosure ‘suboptimal’, lawyer admits

Mr Jackson has admitted the Post Office’s disclosure of documents to the public inquiry has been “suboptimal”.

The inquiry was told on December 19 that the Post Office’s disclosure of documents in relation to investigator Stephen Bradshaw’s evidence was complete, before U-turning last Friday and saying 924 further documents would be disclosed.

Jason Beer KC, inquiry counsel, said it “doesn’t make for happy reading” that hundreds of new documents were released at the last minute, and asked Christopher Jackson if he agreed that the run of correspondence was “rather chaotic”.

Mr Jackson said: “You used the phrase before the lunch break sub-optimal, it is clearly that. It must be frustrating, particularly for the inquiry, and for witnesses and I suspect for those at the other end trying to get it right.”

• ‘Inaccurate’ information provided to High Court

Jason Beer KC has questioned Chris Jackson on a number of inaccuracies surrounding an electronic disclosure questionnaire, or EDQ, submitted to the High Court for a 2019 group action brought by Alan Bates and 555 sub-postmasters.

The inquiry was told the EDQ contained informaton that was either not accurate or oversimplified, a statement of truth was signed by Andrew Parsons, a partner at Womble Bond Dickinson.

Asked by Mr Beer if information provided to the High Court and the claimants was inaccurate, Mr Jackson replied: “With what is known now, yes”.

• Documents marked ‘new material’ were duplicates

Some “significant volumes” of the same documents that were marked “new material” led to delays to hearings.

Stephen Bradshaw, the Post Office investigator who gave evidence to the inquiry on Thursday, was due to give evidence initially in November but his appearance was postponed, the inquiry counsel explained, “due to disclosure of what was said to be substantial new documents very shortly before he was due to give evidence”.

Jason Beer KC, counsel for the inquiry, told the inquiry that Post Office had produced up to 50 duplicated documents which had been marked as “new material”.

• Post Office apologises over disclosure delays

The Post Office has apologised over disclosure delays which has resulted in the postponement of hearings in the public inquiry into the Horizon scandal, Blathnaid Corless reports.

In his opening remarks to the inquiry, Chris Jackson, a partner at law firm Burges Salmon LLP, said it was a Post Office priority to improve the release of documents.

The Post Office has previously been criticised for not disclosing certain documents in legal proceedings against sub-postmasters and to the inquiry.