Former CEO Paula Vennells reveals that the government was aware of the controversial Post Office strategies to suppress subpostmasters’ campaign for justice
The government was aware of the Post Office’s decision to call on the judge to remove himself from managing its High Court battle with subpostmasters, Paula Vennells has told the public inquiry.
During the latest Post Office scandal hearing, former Post Office CEO Vennells was asked whether the government was aware of the Post Office’s controversial strategy to attempt to remove a High Court judge during the multimillion-pound group litigation order (GLO), after the judge criticised the Post Office during the initial phase of the trial.
In March 2019, the trial was suspended when the Post Office questioned the impartiality of managing judge Justice Peter Fraser. Its legal team called for Fraser to be removed, or recuse himself, from the case. The application was widely seen as a delaying tactic by the Post Office and an attempt to ramp up costs to force the subpostmasters to settle the case. The Post Office, which is owned by UK taxpayers, also appealed a major judgement in the trial and spent over £100m on legal costs in an attempt to shut down the former subpostmasters’ claim.
Subpostmasters were attempting to prove that errors in the Horizon computer system caused unexplained shortfalls for which they were blamed, and the recusal application came after damning evidence had emerged over the course of the court battle, which began in November 2018.
During the latest public inquiry hearing, Vennells was asked about the Post Office’s relationship with the government. She said from 2012, after the Post Office split from Royal Mail, there was always a senior member of the civil service at board meetings. The government had not responded to Computer Weekly questions when this article was published.
Vennells was asked, by inquiry barrister Jason Beer KC, whether the government was aware of the facts of the GLO and the Post Office’s strategy during the case, including its attempt to remove Judge Fraser from his role.
She said she believes the government was aware and that she was on the call where the decision to proceed with the recusal application was made, although she had left the conference call before that issue was addressed. She said the government representative on the Post Office board, Tom Cooper, h
