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Post Office chief executive Nick Read has told the Horizon IT scandal inquiry that he was told he didn’t need to dig into the past details of sub-postmasters prosecutions when he joined the company.
Mr Read, who is leaving his post in March, is explaining that when he started as CEO in 2019 there was a sense that the Post Office needed to “move on” from the Horizon scandal. He told the inquiry that during his interview process dealing with litigation was not mentioned as part of the job.
He also told the inquiry that he didn’t appreciate the scale of the injustice faced by the postmasters when he joined the company in 2019.
Mr Read oversaw the Post Office’s response to legal action brought by wronged sub-postmasters and their compensation.
The inquiry heard last week about claims from a whistleblower of a “disgusting” culture at the Post Office that “starts at the top with Nick”.
The Post Office Horizon IT scandal led to hundreds of postmasters being wrongly prosecuted for theft and false accounting due to discrepancies caused by IT bugs in the system.
‘Some postmasters were left behind in the pursuit of profit’
Nick Read has said that postmasters were “left behind in the pursuit of profit” as the Post Office struggled financially.
Mr Read told the Horizon IT inquiry that there was a “drive for network transformation and commercial sustainability” from 2016-2019.
He added: “In that drive, I believed that postmasters had been left behind.”
He referenced “the move from fixed fees for postmasters to variable payments” as one of the ways that postmasters were left behind.
Mr Read said: It was my intention to refocus the organisation around…the relationship with the postmaster and its local communities. That was slightly at odds with where the [government] officials were, which was to ensure that we didn’t continue to spend money on the Post Office.
“I think there was an attitude to ringfence and ensure that the Post Office was a standalone business, without thinking through the implications of that for the postmasters,” he added.
Mr Read said that by 2020 “there was a growing need and desire by those who had been impacted by the scandal to get to the truth.”
Mr Read that closure would not be achieved for the Post Office victims if the inquiry merely looked forward at how the scandal could not happen again. Permanent secretary at the Cabinet Office, Alex Chisholm, had suggested a shorter inquiry, Mr Read said.
Holly Bancroft9 October 2024 11:19
Nick Read: I was told not to dig into the past
Nick Read has told the inquiry that when he joined the Post Office in 2019 the issue of postmasters’ prosecutions was in the past. He was told: “Nothing like this is happening 1728475326 or could happen – we need to look forward”.
The prosecutions ended in 2015, but a significant judgement was handed down to the Post Office in 2019 by Justice Fraser. The judgement detailed how the Post Office needed to change, and how it should offer compensation to wronged postmasters.
Mr Read added: “I don’t think the scale and enormity of the scandal was brought to life before me because there wasn’t a realisation in the business of what needed to be done.”
Mr Read said when he joined in 2019 the Post Office legal team had just started work to understand the implications of losing in the courts to the sub-postmasters.
Mr Read, reflecting on the beginning of his role, said: “There were a multitude of different priorities that were required in the first 4-6 weeks.
“I was told that I did not need to dig into the details of what had happened at the Post Office in the past.”
Holly Bancroft9 October 2024 10:50
Nick Read has told the Horizon IT inquiry that he didn’t realise the scale of the injustice that the postmasters faced when he took on his role as CEO.
In a statement to the inquiry, he said: “It is clear to me now that I did not have a proper appreciation at this time of the scope or magnitude of the injustice that the postmasters had faced.
“My understanding was that I was joining a business that was challenged.”
He told the inquiry that he was determined to “shift the culture” at the Post Office, saying: “The Post Office would not exist without postmasters and from my first day as CEO I was determined to make this shift in the cultural mindset of the organisation. The findings from the litigation confirmed that was the right direction.”
However he said that he “didn’t need to dig into the details of what had happened at Post Office in the past as this conduct had ended.”
“I didn’t have experience of managing litigation,.. a compensation scheme, or public inquiry”, he told lawyers.
Mr Read said “there was a degree of denial” following the Post Office’s loss in the courts against the sub-postmasters.
Holly Bancroft9 October 2024 10:36
Nick Read: I wasn’t told CEO role would involve dealing with litigation
Nick Read has told the inquiry that, when he was interviewed for his role as Chief Executive, the postmaster litigation and need for huge IT overhaul were not mentioned.
In a witness statement, Mr Read said: “The job specification did not mention the litigation, and as far as I recall it was not mentioned during the interview process.
“The job specification also did not state that Post Office needed to oversee a large scale and complex IT transformation project…As far as I recall, this was also not mentioned to me in the interview process.
“I had no indication that a significant part of my role would be a profound cultural change of the scale needed, dealing with the litigation or its implications, or in delivering a large-scale IT transformation”.
During Mr Read’s time at the Post Office, he had to move the company away from the Horizon IT system to an alternative process.
Holly Bancroft9 October 2024 10:27
Post Office chief executive Nick Read has begun his testimony at the Horizon IT inquiry.
He is being questioned over the nature of this witness statements, some of which are given in his official role at the Post Office and one of which is given on a personal basis.
Mr Read is also being questioned on his previous business experience before he joined the Post Office. He had worked as the chief executive officer of Nisa Retail previously.
Holly Bancroft9 October 2024 10:18
Sir Wyn Williams tells inquiry that a former sub-postmaster passed away last week
Sir Wyn Williams has opened the inquiry this morning by saying that a former sub-postmaster Mrs Gillian Blakey has passed away.
She was a sub-postmaster in Lincolnshire. During her period there, shortfalls appeared in the accounts due to faulty data from the Horizon IT system.
Her husband was prosecuted over the faults and she lost her job.
She had not received the additional compensation to which she was entitled, Sir Wyn Williams said.
Holly Bancroft9 October 2024 10:10
How long with Nick Read give evidence for?
Post Office chief executive Nick Read will face three days of grilling at the Horizon IT inquiry.
His first day is today, starting at 10am and going on till 16:30, and he will be back on Thursday and Friday as well.
Holly Bancroft9 October 2024 10:07
Calls for independent body to handle compensation schemes
People affected by the Windrush and Post Office scandals are being re-traumatised by the schemes designed to offer redress, according to researchers from King’s College London.
“These people have been failed by the state and it is unacceptable that schemes designed to compensate them are further adding to the damage already caused,” Ms Pal said.
Holly Bancroft9 October 2024 10:03
Did Nick Read push for a bigger bonus?
Post Office chairman Henry Staunton told the inquiry last week that CEO Nick Read was unhappy with his pay and one of Mr Staunton’s first acts as chairman was to write to the secretary of state to ask for it to be increased.
At the time in November 2022, Mr Read would have received salary plus compensation of £788,500 in total. He had wanted to increase his total earnings to £1,125,180 – a salary that Mr Staunton admitted was “astonishing”.
Mr Staunton told the inquiry: “It was obviously a massive salary increase in a company which wasn’t a normal corporate. It was paid for by the public purse”.
The request was refused by then-secretary of state Grant Shapps.
Holly Bancroft9 October 2024 09:34
Who is Post Office chief executive Nick Read?
Post Office chief executive Nick Read has been at the Post Office for five years. He is due to step down in March 2025 and has taken time away from his role to prepare for the Horizon IT inquiry.
Interim chief operating officer Neil Brocklehurst has been filling in as an acting chief executive.
Mr Read has previously appeared before MPs to defend his management of the Post Office. However in February, the business and trade committee expressed a lack of confidence in his leadership, accusing him of giving misleading evidence.
Over the course of the inquiry and parliamentary hearings, Mr Read’s evidence has often clashed with that of former Post Office chairman Henry Stauton.
Mr Read had been investigated over misconduct allegations but an external report, released earlier this year, cleared him of wrongdoing.
Holly Bancroft9 October 2024 09:27