wellignton – stock.adobe.com
A reference to Horizon was removed from Royal Mail prospectus by Paula Vennells in the eleventh hour
Former CEO Paula Vennells removed a reference to the Post Office Horizon system in the IT risk section of a Royal Mail prospectus, as it was being floated on the stock market, and later bragged about doing so.
During the flotation of the Royal Mail in 2013, a prospectus was drawn up for potential investors. There was a reference to the Post Office Horizon system in the risk section of the prospectus, which at the time was being blamed for errors causing accounting shortfalls which subpostmasters were prosecuted for.
Public knowledge of this could have been highly damaging to the flotation, with the prospect of wrongful convictions of subpostmastesr and potential future challenges.
In the latest Post Office scandal public inquiry hearing, Vennells said that she was not involved in the privatisation, but despite this acknowledged that she took out the reference to Horizon.
Edward Henry KC, representing scandal victims at the public inquiry, asked Vennells why she got involved with amending the prospectus.
She said: “This was very last minute, I can’t remember how it occurred, but it was flagged to me that within the IT section of the Royal Mail prospectus there was reference to risks related to the Horizon IT system. I clearly arrived at a view that that seemed the wrong place.”
Vennells added that the line she removed said that there have been no systemic issues with Horizon and that the system “has nothing to do with Royal Mail Group”. She got in touch with the company secretary and said she didn’t understand why the reference was there and asked to have it removed, which it was. Vennells later boasted about it in an email to Post Office chair Alice Perkins. She wrote: “I have earned my keep on this one.”
Henry asked Vennells wh
