The chief executive of the Post Office has said that no employee is “above the law” and denied that there are “untouchables” within the organisation who will never face disciplinary action over the wrongful prosecution of hundreds of post office operators.
The public inquiry into the Horizon IT scandal had heard that Nick Read, who joined as chief executive in 2019 with a pledge to “right the wrongs of the past”, has used the phrase “untouchables” on multiple occasions
Read had reportedly used the term to describe a group of the organisation’s investigators involved in the pursuit and wrongful prosecution of post office operators who would never face disciplinary action over the scandal.
On Tuesday, the inquiry was shown a whistleblowing document claiming there were “at least 120 employees” at the Post Office who “to a greater or lesser degree were involved in the wrongful prosecution of SPMs [sub-post office operators]” in the scandal, in which bugs in the Horizon system caused financial discrepancies.
Former chair Henry Staunton and post office operators Saf Ismail and Elliott Jacobs, who are non-executive directors at the company, have given testimony that Read has used the term.
On Tuesday, inquiry counsel Jason Beer asked Read about internal emails he received from Ismail and Jacobs recounting his use of the phrase in a telephone conversation with them.
Jacobs has also claimed the company’s investigations department is “out of control” and that 40 of them have been nicknamed “the untouchables” by Read.
“My recollection of this [call] is being very, very clear that no one in the business is untouchable,” said Read, in a highly anticipated appearance before the inquiry. “No one is above the law. I don’t know if I used the word untouchable.
“We are trying to bring a sense of transparency to the organisation and nobody is above the law. That is the point I am trying to make. I think there is a lot of conflation with what is being described. The notion of 40 ‘untouchables’ that are investigators from the past is not an expression used in the organisation, or is familiar in the organisation.”
Read was also asked about a move to audit the work history of 1,700 staff and identify some of them as “reds”.
Documents show the Post Office identified 35 current staff as having previous roles relating to the Horizon IT scandal who now work in the remediation department dealing with compensation or post office operator-facing roles, or work on the current public inquiry.
None of the staff have ever had allegations of wrongdoing made against them.
“I can’t say there have not been individuals involved in improper investigations and wrongful prosecution who were involved in the handling of compensation claims under the Horizon Shortfall Scheme,” said Read, who has submitted four witness statements totalling 307 pages of written evidence to the inquiry.
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“I am confident there are not individuals involved in postmaster-facing activity that had roles in the past where allegations or anything of wrongdoing has been brought to my attention,” he said.
“I have been very clear [that] at no stage will we walk past allegations of wrongdoing in the organisation.”
Read was also asked his view on testimony given to the inquiry that there is a view within the Post Office that some of the hundreds of post office operators exonerated earlier this year wherein fact guilty.
“I don’t think I could say specifically that is the case but there will be a view that not every quashed conviction will be innocent.” he said, before clarifying his position. “If I was to reflect, the majority of the organisation would agree the [exoneration] action taken is absolutely right.
“Whether there are guilty postmasters that will be exonerated is no longer an issue. That is something that is no longer a concern to people within the Post Office.”
Read is due to give three days of evidence to the inquiry, which heard from its current interim chair on Tuesday.