The outgoing Chief Executive of the Post Office, Nick Read, is due to give evidence to the Horizon IT inquiry for three days this week. Read took over from the disgraced former boss, Paula Vennells, in 2019, and has come under considerable scrutiny over his response to the ongoing crisis in the organisation.
Previous witnesses have described how Read was ‘obsessed’ with his pay, and demanded for pay rises even as the full, grim extent of the Horizon scandal was being uncovered.
Read was paid £573,000 last year and over £800,000 the year before. This was while he oversaw the High Court case brought by subpostmaster Alan Bates that saw many end up with only £20,000 in compensation after paying enormous legal bills.
The former chief people officer, Jane Davies, told MPs in April that Read exhibited ‘a pattern of behaviour, which was centred on maximising his own pay, not erring on the side of caution and not taking into consideration the wide inequalities of pay in [the Post Office]’.
Complaints have also arisen around the culture at the organisation while Read was at the helm, in particular around individuals he described as so-called ‘untouchables’. This phrase referred to those Post Office investigators who were responsible for pursuing subpostmasters, were therefore implicated in the scandal, but would not face any consequences.
The former chair of the Post Office warned that another miscarriage of justice could take place if these ‘untouchables’ were not removed by the time the replacement software system is rolled out, which is due to be in place from March 2025. He told the inquiry: ‘I am very afraid. [They] would be involved in any future investigations … and that seems utterly wrong.’
Earlier this month, the former finance chief at the Post Office, Alisdair Cameron, said Read had overseen a ‘culture of misogyny’. He said Read surrounded himself with subservient, younger men, rather than more experienced female staff.
Read will be grilled by the inquiry for a total of 16 hours this week.