Treasury Selective Memory Committee

On the 12th, February 2025 during the Treasury Select Committee meeting looking into the work of the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS), Baroness Zahida Manzoor, the Chair of the FOS, confirmed that she will step down in August just days after the unexpected resignation of Chief Executive Abby Thomas. Manzoor’s departure was announced while addressing the Treasury Select Committee who were discussing the abrupt departure of Thomas.

Manzoor was asked ‘When was the Compromise Agreement agreed (with Thomas)? Was it last Friday or was it before?’

She replied ‘Err, um, I’ve already stated, there’s nothing else I can add to what I’ve said which is that, you know, it was mutually agreed. Abby stepped down and we mutually agreed that she was stepping down and we made the announcement. I mean there is nothing else’.

We would question what the difference is between 'we agreed,' and 'we mutually agreed?’, which is repeated increasing the sensitivity.

'We agreed' suggests it's straight forward i.e. 'Can we meet at 10am for Coffee?' If the answer is, ‘Yes', 'we agreed' is appropriate. The process is simple.

With, 'Can we mutually agree a time to meet?' There is a psychological need to add the word, 'mutually,' which is more indicative of potential differences or difficulties needing to be overcome prior to an agreed meeting taking place.

Therefore, the former example is more straightforward and gives more confidence whereas the latter example is not, demonstrating the likelihood of disagreement, lacking confidence and thus the unnecessary word 'mutually' seeks to persuade and convince that everything was positive whereas the reality is there were likely differences and not everything is as harmonious as they would have us believe.

The shortest answer is the best and the word 'mutually' is redundant given use of the word 'we’. What were the differences or difficulties at play here and why the need to portray otherwise?

Why not simply say, 'we agreed' which in and off itself can suggest potential disagreement?

Why the need to say, 'agreed' at all? Better to simply say what the outcome was i.e. In this situation, 'She left'.

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Video Reference: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P0MICOkgtlg.