Key moments
The Post Office committee hearing has today heard from Alan Bates, former postmaster and eponymous hero of the ITV drama, Nick Read, the company’s boss, and Henry Staunton, who was sacked as chairman last month.
In sometimes explosive evidence, Staunton said he had been the target of a “smear campaign” led by Kemi Badenoch, the business secretary, and fought back against claims that he had told “lies”.
It was also revealed that Read is under investigation for misconduct, as Staunton revealed chaos in the boardroom.
Bates gave a damning assessment of the Post Office, saying he could not see when the Horizon scandal would be over, and that the firm was a “dead duck” which should be sold to Amazon for £1. Read developments as they happened below.
‘Shapps slapped down request for CEO pay rise’
The former chairman of the Post Office lobbied the secretary of state to give the company’s CEO a pay rise to increase his six-figure salary.
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Henry Staunton, who was sacked as chairman last month, said Nick Read had become unhappy with his annual salary of £436,000 — plus bonuses — and wanted more.
Staunton told MPs he had four conversations with Read in which he implied he wanted to quit as CEO.
In response, he was asked by MPs if he ever tried to increase Read’s pay to prevent him leaving. Staunton said he had met Grant Shapps, then business secretary, when he was two months into his role as chairman.
“I got a strong message from Mr Shapps when he was secretary of state [saying] don’t even think about coming for any salary increase, I got a strong message from minister Hollinrake.
“I said to him, ‘Nick is unhappy with the salary’, he said, ‘Don’t waste a postage stamp coming to talk to me about it’.”
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Read was paid £573,000 last year, and £816,000 the year before. The question was the final one of a five hour session.
Andy McDonald, the now independent former Labour MP, told the committee: “This has been another unedifying process in parliament and Mr Staunton lifted the lid on what we already knew was a dysfunctional organisation but it’s been taken to new heights today.”
Staunton denies behaving erratically as chairman
Henry Staunton has denied claims that he behaved erratically during his final months as chairman of the Post Office.
“No I completely dispute it,” he said when asked if claims made by Ben Tidswell, the chairman of the Post Office’s remediation committee, were true.
“If I’d been an erratic individual when it comes to business, I wouldn’t have been the chairman, or deputy chairman or main board director of all these companies.”
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The Conservative MP Jonathan Gullis then joked there might be a sequel to ITV’s Mr Bates vs the Post Office, which he says could be called “Mr Staunton and Mr Read vs the Post Office” to laughter in the room.
Staunton said the “only route” through the crisis was the Post Office changing its structure through a “demutualisation”.
I’m being investigated for un-PC comments, Staunton says
Henry Staunton has confirmed he was under investigation for “politically incorrect comments” attributed to him — which he denies.
Speaking to MPs, the former Post Office chairman said the allegations were one paragraph within an 80-page document as part of an investigation into Nick Read, the current Post Office CEO.
He said: “Mr Read fell out with his HR director and she produced a speak up document which was 80 pages thick and within that was one paragraph about comments I allegedly made.
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“This was investigation not into me but an investigation into the chief executive Nick Read. There’s that one paragraph and you could say it was about political incorrect comments attributed to me which I strenuously deny. This was not an investigation into me this was an investigation based on the 80 page document prepared by the HR director.”
He also claimed Read threatened to resign multiple times, including because he was unhappy with his pay.
It was the first time many MPs had heard of the alleged investigation into Read, with Jonathan Gullis prompting laughter in the room when he replied: “That’s blown my mind. For postmasters across the country this is looking like a complete shambles.”
Badenoch may have met her match in Staunton
Henry Staunton, 75, the former Post Office chairman he was told he was being removed from his post because “well, somebody’s got to take the rap”, and that civil servants said he should delay compensation payments to help Tory election chances.
• Who is Henry Staunton? Ex-Post Office chairman in vicious row with Kemi Badenoch
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Badenoch, the business secretary, hit back, saying Staunton was guilty of “spreading falsehoods”, that his interview was a “disgrace” and “a blatant attempt to seek revenge”, and that he had a “cavalier attitude to governance”. She also claimed Staunton was under investigation for bullying, which Staunton claimed he was unaware of in a detailed reply to the claims made in parliament
Badenoch, who is the favourite to become the next Conservative leader, may have met her match.
Staunton is a City veteran and a former chairman of WHSmith and BrightHouse, a rent-to-own electronics and domestic appliances chain. He was also the finance director of Granada Group, helping to direct the company to one of the largest mergers in media history, creating ITV.
I spoke up and I was fired, says former chairman
Henry Staunton has given a robust defence of his decision to speak out against the government, saying he has been subjected to a “smear campaign” ever since (Laurence Sleator writes).
In a statement delivered to MPs, the former Post Office chairman said: “What happened to these poor postmasters and their families is a tragedy and a scandal.
“The Secretary of State, senior civil servants and Post Office officials are asking us to believe that everything was going swimmingly all along when it damn well wasn’t.
“We all know that things were moving far too slowly … the reason everyone has latched on to what I said in The Sunday Times was that, finally, someone was being honest about how deep-seated the problems were and why nothing was being done.
“I will at least have achieved something if the sunlight of disinfectant which the Secretary of State so approves of means that government now lives up to its promises. What the public wants to know is why was everything so slow and why does everything remain so slow?
“I’ve spoken up on matters of genuine public concern, I have been fired and I am now subject to a smear campaign.”
Nod and a wink left me in no doubt, says Staunton
Henry Staunton, the former chairman of the Post Office, has maintained he was told by a senior civil servant and the government to slow down compensation payments for Horizon victims (Laurence Sleator writes).
The sacked chairman denied changing his story and said he had left his meeting with a senior civil servant “in no doubt” of what she had asked.
He said the phrase “nod and a wink just about sums it up”.
“It was such an usual conversation I did a note,” he told MPs.
“I went to see Nick Read and said ‘What do you make of this?’ and he said ‘They live in a different world’.”
Kemi Badenoch, the Business Secretary, has accused Staunton of lying and changing his story. Sarah Munby, the senior civil servant he met, said his claims are false and discussions were focused on the commercial side of the business.
Staunton said Munby’s comments was “not a contemporary note”, unlike his.
Former chief’s behaviour ‘became erratic’
The Post Office’s former chairman began to behave “erratically” two months prior to his sacking, MPs have been told (Laurence Sleator writes).
Ben Tidswell, the chairman of the Post Office’s remediation committee, was asked about an allegation that Henry Staunton, who was dismissed as the company’s chairman last month, was not “alert at meetings” and his performance had raised concerns.
“There was a distinct change in Mr Staunton’s behaviour that I perceived once he became aware of the investigation into him — and I know that because I was the person who asked to tell him we was going to be investigated,” Tidswell said.
“That was in about November last year, and I think it would be fair to say that his behaviour changed in a way that was somewhat erratic at that point and became more erratic as we got into January.
“I did have some concerns about Mr Staunton’s behaviour from about November.”
Tidswell said Staunton had his “own style” when it came to meetings and dealing with people but that prior to November he had not had a problem with that.
“I certainly don’t recall him falling asleep in meetings or anything like that,” he added.
Post Office ‘big enough’ to cope with board members quitting
The chairman of the Post Office’s remediation committee has confirmed he told a senior civil servant that unless Henry Staunton resigned board members may quit (Laurence Sleator writes).
Staunton, a former Post Office chairman, was sacked last month and is under investigation.
Ben Tidswell told MPs: “I spoke with Mr Cresswell and explained from him concerns I had heard from board members and senior executives about Mr Staunton’s behaviour and I passed that information on to him as the senior independent director of the company.
“If somebody, no matter how senior they are, is misbehaving or not behaving in a way that is consistent with their role then that will be dealt with and the Post Office is big enough to be able to deal with that.
“When there were circumstances in which a very senior individual was doing something they should not have been doing the system worked.”
Former chairman’s core claim comes under strain
As Henry Staunton prepares to give evidence in the delayed session, his central claim that he was told to delay compensation to help Tory election chances is under strain (Tom Witherow writes).
The former chairman’s allegation, first made in an interview to The Sunday Times, has now been denied by the civil servant responsible for the Post Office, Carl Creswell, Sarah Munby, the former Permanent Secretary accused of saying it, and by Kemi Badenoch, the Business Secretary.
Creswell said he had “absolutely not” been told to go slow and quipped “you would have thought someone would have mentioned it to me”, given he helps control the budget.
Staunton swore his contemporaneous minutes would substantiate his claim, but when they were published they showed he had been speaking with Munby, in January 2023, about the Post Office’s operational budget, a separate matter.
He then shifted slightly and said he had inferred from his conversation with Munby that “now was not the time for dealing with long-term issues” including Horizon compensation.
These points will be put to Staunton in the next hour, but the evidence heard so far today shows he has become isolated on this point.
Post Office CEO ‘working to restore its reputation’
The boss of the Post Office has accepted there is a trust problem between the organisation and sub-postmasters following the Horizon scandal (Laurence Sleator writes).
Nick Read, chief executive of the company, described delays in paying compensation as “immensely frustrating” and admitted there was work to do to regain confidence.
He said: “I am very, very acutely aware there is an issue of trust associated with the Post Office and we have to inject into the schemes some independence to give people some confidence that this process is independent and independently managed so that this level of trust can some way be mitigated.
“That is the reason it is taking so long.”
Read said and his team were “working hard to challenge perceptions of the Post Office”.
Read denies election link to cash delays
The chief executive of the Post Office has denied claims by the company’s former chairman that the government deliberately delayed paying compensation claims until the election (Laurence Sleator writes).
Asked about claims made by the former chairman Henry Staunton, who was sacked last month, Nick Read said: “I don’t believe that to be the case and I can categorically say that nobody in my team or myself has received any instruction from the government about slowing down compensation.”
When asked whether he believed Staunton was lying, Read said: “Well, I don’t believe it’s true.
“I think he’s misinterpreted or misunderstood the conversation he has had.”
Nick Read denies dragging feet over payments
Nick Read, the chief executive of the Post Office, has denied dragging his feet over the financial redress of victims of the Horizon IT scandal (Laurence Sleator writes).
Appearing before MPs in parliament, he said his company had “had some success” with the speed at which compensation had been paid.
In a rare procedure for a select committee, Read and other executives were required by Liam Byrne, the committee chairman to take an oath to tell the whole truth during their evidence session.
Any failure to tell the truth would be considered in contempt of parliament and potential perjury.
The chairman said: “We have a procedure in parliament by which witnesses take the oath by which we not use in ordinary circumstances but given the context of this oral evidence session we have decided that we will require the witnesses on this panel to take the oath today.”
Lawyers ‘are the only winners’ in Horizon scandal
The only people winning from the Post Office scandal are the battalions of lawyers running the compensation schemes and delving into historic cases (Tom Witherow writes).
The total legal bill for the scandal, ultimately footed by the taxpayer, has climbed to an estimated £150 million, marginally less than the compensation paid out so far.
Herbert Smith Freehills, a top City firm, has been paid tens of millions of pounds to administer the Horizon Shortfall Scheme and support the Post Office’s involvement in the public inquiry.
Two more companies — Addleshaw Goddard and Dentons — have been taken on by the Business Department to run the Bates scheme, and Peters & Peters was hired by the Post Office to delve into old case files to help respond to appeals and allow redress to be paid under the Overturned Convictions scheme.
MP: Scheme must reflect aggravated damages
An MP has demanded “exemplary damages” to be awarded to postmasters as victims of the “most heinous crimes” of Post Office staff (Tom Witherow writes).
Alan Bates, the leading postmaster who lost his post office and life savings in 2003, rejected his initial offer of compensation, which was about a sixth of what he asked for, calling it “derisory”.
Andy McDonald MP, a member of the Business Select Committee, said: “Where is the evidence of exemplary damages about the most heinous crimes committed by the Post Office, so that we deter people from going there ever again?
“This was borne of malice — people deliberately set out to do this. That’s what’s caused the outrage in the country. Where is the reflection of aggravated and exemplary damages in this scheme?”
Sir Ross Cranston, who chairs an independent panel on disputed claims, said: “I would come back to full and fair. It takes into account all of that.”
He has previously said: “Reasonable offers need to be made, and they have to be full and fair … it’s an overarching criteria — it’s not just legalistic analysis — you have to provide a full and fair offer.”
‘Inescapable degree of incompetence’ behind delays
A “deep incompetence and inefficiency” at the Post Office is behind the reason for delay in some claimants receiving their compensation, lawyers for sub-postmasters have said (Laurence Sleator writes).
James Hartley of Freeths was asked by MPs why he believed almost half of eligible claimants under one scheme had not been contacted by the Post Office with information relating to their case.
“I’m not in the blame game here because that doesn’t help our clients, but it is just inescapable. A degree of incompetence and inefficiency, a deep incompetence and inefficiency, has been the reason for Post Office delays on disclosure,” he said.
Hartley said many of his clients had been waiting “weeks and weeks” and that he believed it could take six months or more based on the rate of disclosure so far.
He said he believed the compensation deadline of August set by the government was not achievable.
‘Money pit’ Post Office is a ‘dead duck’
The Post Office is a “dead duck” and should be sold to Amazon for £1, Alan Bates has said (Laurence Sleator writes).
Asked by MPs about the leadership of the Post Office, he said: “Over the years I’ve been with the Post Office, the culture has always been Post Office — it hasn’t changed. It’s been the same for donkey’s years. It will not change and you cannot change it.
“My personal view about Post Office is, it’s a dead duck and it has been for years. And it’s a money pit for the taxpayer for years to come, and you should sell it to someone like Amazon for £1 and get really good contracts for serving sub-postmasters.
“And within a few years, you’ll have one of the best networks around the world.”
In response, MPs acknowledged it was a “very radical proposal”.
Analysis: Postmasters share struggles for redress
Ministers say there is an assumption that postmasters are believed when evidence is lacking, but victims’ experiences are starkly different (Tom Witherow writes).
Tony Downey, who left the UK after suffering a nervous breakdown from his ordeal, said the Post Office dispute caused his bankruptcy and that it was trying to prove he had a pre-existing medical condition. He says this is untrue.
Tim Brentnall, whose conviction was overturned in 2020, is still preparing his claim with his lawyers three years on because of “the amount of information and detail the Post Office insist we put in it”.
He added: “I feel I get the pick of the crumbs from the table.”
It is hard to see how the design of the schemes can be changed at this late stage. Claims made at the dispatch box of “full and fair” compensation by ministers do not chime with the Horizon victims’ current experience.
Alan Bates said: “Get rid of Post Office in any of these schemes. That’s the best thing you could do.”
Pay people what they’re owed, campaigner tells MPs
The government and Fujitsu should “get on and pay people” the money they are owed, Alan Bates has told MPs (Laurence Sleator writes).
Bates, who founded the Justice for Subpostmasters Alliance (JSA), which is campaigning for justice, said: “There’s a lot of distractions and a lot of other things brought up all the time — but just get on and pay people.”
“It’s not — it’s financial redress. This is money these people are actually owed, and they’ve been owed it for years.
The former sub-postmaster also questioned the framing of the money as “compensation”.
“Compensation sounds like something at the benefit, at the whim, of the government and all the rest of it … Let’s get it right and let’s really push forward on that aspect,” he added.
Alan Bates says he ‘can’t see any end’ to scandal
Alan Bates, the postmaster at the centre of the ITV drama into the Horizon scandal, said he “can’t see any end” to the fiasco as he revealed his own compensation claim is no further forward (Laurence Sleator writes).
Speaking at the Business and Trade Committee, he was asked if he felt redress for postmasters was occurring “faster and fairer”.
“Speaking personally of my claim I can say no, it isn’t,” he said. “It’s still sat there — we’ve refused it and that’s it.”
Earlier this year he revealed he had rejected the compensation offer, saying it was only a sixth of what he had asked for. Bates was forced to stop running his own Post Office branch in 2003.
Asked whether he was impressed by what he had heard from the government this morning, he said: “No, I’m afraid not — very disappointed.
“It’s been going for years, as you well know, and I can’t see any end to it.”
Analysis: Badenoch’s team land early blows
The Business Secretary, Kemi Badenoch, may be abroad on ministerial business, but her staff have landed some early blows on former Post Office chairman Henry Staunton (Tom Witherow writes).
Carl Creswell, the civil servant with policy responsibility for the Post Office within the Business Department, has said Staunton’s misconduct investigation was still ongoing despite his sacking in January.
• Who is Henry Staunton? Ex-Post Office chairman in row with Kemi Badenoch
He said “the chair was allegedly trying to stop a whistleblowing investigation into his conduct”, and that this was “particularly serious” given the history of the Horizon scandal — and that board directors would have resigned if Staunton had not been pushed.
Badenoch, who is in Abu Dhabi for the World Trade Organisation’s ministerial conference, said last week that this included claims of “bullying”.
Staunton has said he was unaware of any formal investigation, and will answer further questions in front of the Business Select Committee from 1pm.
Staunton goes or we do, board members said
Members of the Post Office board would have resigned if the former Post Office chairman Henry Staunton had not been dismissed, it has been claimed (Laurence Sleator writes).
Staunton, who was dismissed from his post last month, has been embroiled in a war of words with the government after claiming he had been told to delay compensation payments.
Kemi Badenoch, the business secretary, said allegations in relation to his conduct and behaviour were being investigated at the time.
Asked about this, Carl Creswell, director of business resilience at the Department for Business and Trade, said he had “explicitly” been told that people on the Post Office board would resign unless Staunton was removed.
He said he was told by one person: “The level of anxiety about Mr Staunton’s behaviour was such we might see resignations from the board.”
An investigation into Staunton’s behaviour was taking place and was “still ongoing”, Creswell added.
He said that two allegations were relevant to the dismissal: “One was the chair allegedly trying to stop a whistleblowing investigation into his conduct, which — given the history of the Post Office and the Horizon scandal — struck me as particularly serious.
“The other was the chair trying to stop a public appointments process to recruit a new senior independent director. And that role is there to hold the chair to account.”
Post Office yet to contact half of eligible claimants
Almost half of the former postmasters potentially eligible for money under a compensation scheme have still not been contacted with details relevant to their claim (Laurence Sleator writes).
For the first step of the “Group Litigation Order” scheme being used by leading campaigner Alan Bates, the Post Office is expected to contact claimants with a disclosure report to provide information.
However, of the 478 people who are eligible only 55 per cent have been contacted.
Liam Byrne, chairman of the Business and Trade committee, asked: “Why on earth is it only 55 per cent?
“If you haven’t even issued the disclosure report there’s no way you are going to these claims in by April, May, June,” he said.
Carl Creswell, director of business resilience at the Department for Business and Trade, said he felt “confident” the Post Office was on plan but admitted it had a “lot still to do”.
The aim is to resolve all claims by August.
Fujitsu talks on contributions have yet to begin
The government has not begun negotiating with Fujitsu over how much money the Japanese communications company should contribute towards paying postmasters (Laurence Sleator writes).
Carl Creswell, director of business resilience at the Department for Business and Trade, said the “principle has been established” that Fujitsu would pay but that the government was not yet negotiating a precise figure.
Bosses at the company, which built the faulty Horizon IT system, have agreed, alongside the taxpayer, to put money towards compensation. A specific figure has not been agreed.
Asked why not, he said: “If we were to agree a sum of money now, and the Horizon IT inquiry found something material that could affect that negotiation, it will be wrong of us on behalf of the taxpayer to reach a pre-emptive agreement when situation might change.”
Two-thirds of eligible sub-postmasters have not claimed cash
More than two thirds of people eligible for compensation under one of the Post Office schemes have not yet claimed any money, it has been revealed (Laurence Sleator writes).
The “Group Litigation Order” scheme is being used by leading campaigner Alan Bates, whose fight inspired an ITV drama about the scandal, and 500 fellow postmasters he led in a High Court case against the Post Office in the 2010s.
Carl Creswell, a senior civil servant in the Department for Business and Trade who oversees delivery of compensation under the scheme, said: “Of the 478 people within the GLO scheme we have received 106 full claims now — and we’ve made 104 offers, of which 80 have been accepted.”
Liam Byrne, chairman of the Business and Trade committee, said: “You’ll understand that after everything we’ve been through, two-thirds haven’t put in a claim, that is a concern.”
Victims could receive £600,000
More than a hundred victims who were wrongly convicted of crimes, including theft and fraud, have successfully appealed against their convictions so far, but at least 850 more convictions involving data from the Horizon IT system remain (Laurence Sleator writes).
A bill is going through parliament that would automatically overturn hundreds of convictions with a minimum of £600,000 compensation each.
The legislation will account for prosecutions carried out by the Post Office and the Crown Prosecution Service, but will exclude prosecutions carried out by the Department for Work and Pensions.
More than 250 postmasters have died without justice
More than 250 postmasters wrongly accused of stealing from their own tills died before receiving their final compensation (Laurence Sleator writes).
The Times revealed the latest figure last week. It shows a steep jump from April, when it was found 59 postmasters had died, and suggests postmasters are dying at a rate of about three per week.
More than 900 subpostmasters were wrongly prosecuted between 1999 and 2015 as the Horizon system made it appear as though money was missing from their branches.
Henry Staunton to elaborate on interview claims
Henry Staunton, the former Post Office chairman, is expected to elaborate on the claims he made in an interview in The Sunday Times earlier this month about the government’s handling of the Post Office scandal (Laurence Sleator writes).
He claimed he was told he was being removed from his post in the wake of the ITV drama on the scandal because, “well, somebody’s got to take the rap”, and that civil servants said he should delay compensation payments to help Tory election chances.
Kemi Badenoch, the business secretary, hit back and accused Staunton of “spreading falsehoods” and claimed he was under investigation for bullying.
Staunton’s accusations also brought out a denial from the senior civil servant he implicated, Sarah Munby.
Chairman and campaigner to give evidence
MPs on the Business and Trade Committee are seeking to shed light on issues with various compensation schemes (Laurence Sleator writes).
They will hear from Alan Bates the campaigner who inspired the ITV drama about the scandal, and other sub-postmasters from 11am. The current Post Office chief executive Nick Read is due to appear at about midday, and Henry Staunton from 1pm.
