The Post Office has “dragged its feet” in getting rid of staff with connections to the Horizon scandal, despite a former government minster’s call for powerful action on the individuals, the public inquiry has heard.
The former minister, Kevin Hollinrake, told the Post Office to deal with the staff in question “robustly”, yet if it meant the firm being taken to an employment tribunal.
However, CEO Nick Read acknowledged at a Post Office scandal public inquiry hearing that the Post Office “dragged its feet” when it was dealing with employees in positions relating to evaluating and investigations. At the time, the Post Office was improperly prosecuting subpostmasters using weak evidence.
Read was questioned about an exchange with the original Department for Business and Trade, Hollinrake, earlier this year during the most recent public inquiry hearing.
In that meeting, Hollinrake made it evident that he wanted the staff involved in the scandal to be treated swiftly and thoroughly, even if it meant the Post Office was subject to a tribunal challenge. During the meeting, he said he was” not a big fan of paying people off”.
When KC Jason Beer, the subject of the public inquiry, questioned whether this was a “green light” for action, Read replied,” I do n’t think we have been as robust as that.”
Additionally, it was revealed during the hearing that the Post Office uses a method of paying these past employees off through voluntary or redundancy. The victims of the scandal have no faith that those who were involved in prosecutions in the past are also employed by the Post Office.
Awaiting data
According to Read’s most recent testimony at the hearing, 22 police forces had requested or were awaiting information from the Horizon system for use in 33 investigations as late as June of this year. The numbers were revealed in an interior Post Office memo that discussed proposed changes to the way that evidence is presented to law enforcement. Following the High Court’s investigation into the Post Office scandal and the use of weak computer evidence to prosecute, this comes as a result in 2019.
Read said he was surprised by the scale of requests, and that it required “pause for thought”.
The Post Office scandal, which was first exposed by Computer Weekly in 2009, revealed the accounts of seven subpostmasters and the issues they encountered as a result of Horizon accounting software, which caused the most widespread miscarriage of justice in British history ( see below list of Computer Weekly articles about the scandal since 2009 ).
• Even read:  , What you need to know about the Horizon scandal , •
• Even watch:  , ITV’s documentary – , Mr Bates vs The Post Office: The true story , •
• Even read:  , Post Office and Fujitsu malevolence and incompetence means big taxpayers ‘ bill , •
