Former Post Office Boss Hands Back CBE and Says ‘Sorry’ to Horizon Scandal Sub-Postmasters

Ex-Post Office Chief Returns CBE and Offers Apology to Horizon Scandal Sub-Postmasters

January 9, 2024 TruthUSA

The former chief executive of the Post Office, Paula Vennells, has said she is “truly sorry for the devastation” caused to sub-postmasters wrongly accused of theft and fraud. She has agreed to return her CBE, adding that she is “truly sorry for the devastation” caused by the Horizon scandal. The scandal led to around 700 postmasters and sub-postmasters being wrongly accused of fraud due to an error in the Horizon accounting software made by the Japanese firm Fujitsu. This led to a number of convictions being thrown out by a High Court judge, who accused the Post Office of “institutional obstinacy.” The move by Ms. Vennells to return her CBE comes after the prime minister’s official spokesman said Rishi Sunak would “strongly support” the Honours Forfeiture Committee if it considered removing her CBE. Post office minister Kevin Hollinrake told MPs on Monday that the government was actively looking into ways in which the sub-postmasters’ convictions could be quickly overturned, including passing emergency legislation. In addition, Mr. Hollinrake said those who had been wrongfully convicted would be offered £600,000 each. The government has been spurred into action after a television drama about the scandal was watched by millions. Ms. Vennells made a statement in which she said she had maintained her silence up until then because it was inappropriate to comment publicly before giving evidence at the ongoing public inquiry. She said she would focus on assisting the public inquiry and would not make any further comment until it was over. Earlier, the work and pensions secretary, Mel Stride, said Fujitsu would “quite possibly” have to pay compensation if an ongoing public inquiry into the Post Office scandal blames them and their handling of the software at the heart of the case.

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She added that “compensation would be a step in the right direction, but it’s a step on a long road to getting to the end of this national scandal.” Mr. Stride also said, “We’ve got this public inquiry underway. One of the things it’s going to look at … is where does culpability lie? Who is responsible, who knew what when, who did things they shouldn’t have done and so on?” He ruled out banning Fujitsu from bidding for government IT contracts. Mr. Stride added, “My view is that we need to wait to see what the inquiry decides in terms of culpability. Now in the event that it determines that Fujitsu made a number of knowing mistakes and caused all sorts of problems that wouldn’t have otherwise have occurred, then that would strike me as being quite a serious situation and I would expect some very serious consequences.” The justice secretary, Alex Chalk, is holding talks with senior judges about how to expedite the quashing of convictions of postmasters and sub-postmasters caught up in the Horizon scandal. Gwyneth Hughes, who wrote the ITV drama “Mr Bates vs The Post Office,” said she was “completely astounded” by the public and political response to the programme. She told The Guardian: “We don’t know who in the Post Office were the individual bad guys but what we do know is that as a result of groupthink and confirmation bias, the institution as a whole is guilty of appalling cruelty and lying.”

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