Paula Vennells’s appearance at the Post Office Horizon IT inquiry was always going to be a big moment, even if it was overshadowed this week by Rishi Sunak’s decision to call an election. She was the chief executive of the government-owned business from 2012 to 2019, in charge when forensic accountants were hired to look into claims that subpostmasters had been wrongly blamed for errors caused by software – and when that investigation was terminated.
She was the boss when Alan Bates and more than 500 other subpostmasters won £58m in compensation. Since January, when ITV screened its remarkable Mr Bates vs The Post Office drama, Ms Vennells – who is also a vicar – has become the face of a scandal in which hundreds of people were wrongly prosecuted and 236 sent to prison.
Much of the evidence before Sir Wyn Williams’s inquiry is legal and technical. But this week a great deal was revealed about Ms Vennells and the organisation in which she took such pride until her fall. A telling moment came when he asked why she had been advised to be “very guarded” when giving evidence to MPs. The obvious answer, though not the one she gave, was that she had things to hide.
Ms Vennells protested her ignorance of the law, her “too trusting” nature, her ability to take criticism and reliance on others’ advice. Under questions from Jason Beer KC, this self-portrait was shown to be at odds with actions including her refusal to re-examine older convictions, her fixation on the Post Office’s reputation and appalling emails fishing for information about Martin Griffiths’s mental health after he took his own life. Another exchange referred to messages sent by Moya Greene, her former boss, who wrote: “I think you knew … I can’t support you now after what I have learned.”
But culpable though she is, Ms Vennells was not a solo operator. Recent hearings have revealed poor behaviour by lawyers as well as executives; notably a meeting in 2013 at which Brian Altman KC and others decided not to tell Seema Misra – a subpostmaster who was jailed when pregnant – that flawed expert evidence meant her conviction was unsafe. Mark Davies, the Post Office’s PR man, gave private advice revealing his contempt for reporters. And Ms Vennells was not alone in objecting to Second Sight, the forensic accountants. Alice Perkins, who chaired the board, complained bitterly that they were not being “marked” – as she said they would have been in the civil service where she worked previously. Former general counsel Jane MacLeod is refusing to testify in person. The overall impression is of a complacent bureaucracy, which judged the lives of subpostmasters to be of secondary importance.
Mr Beer’s description of a siege mentality bears obvious similarity to the “institutional defensiveness” identified by Sir Brian Langstaff as a cause of the infected blood scandal. Sir Brian criticised the NHS, government and civil service. Since the Post Office inquiry has some way to go, we do not yet know where blame will be laid. But following years of exhausting struggle, things are moving. On Friday, a law quashing past convictions linked to Horizon was passed, enabling those affected to seek compensation. Already there is plenty to digest regarding the conduct of very senior professional people, particularly their reluctance to admit mistakes. Once again, an institutional culture is being revealed where personal and corporate self-interest blot out everything else.