Post Office statements on the Horizon system, whether to journalists or the government, were routinely carefully crafted by lawyers
Former Post Office CEO Paula Vennells refused to meet a government minister without a lawyer in 2015 when he insisted on a briefing to discuss the damaging findings of a landmark investigation into the Post Office Horizon system.
This set the tone for the Post Office, which has relied heavily on lawyers to keep a lid on the Horizon scandal over the past two decades.
In 2015, George Freeman, who was minister for life sciences in the Department of Health and Department for Business, said he initially refused to read out a speech prepared by officials stating that Horizon was reliable, but did so after meetings with the Post Office CEO, which she refused to attend without her lawyer.
Covering for absent postal minister Jo Swinson, Freeman made the speech following the publication of a report from forensic investigation company Second Sight. He said in the House of Commons: “Second Sight produced two independent reports – one in 2013 and the other earlier this year [2015] – both of which found there was no evidence of systemic flaws in the system.”
But Second Sight’s report, published in April 2015, said there were systemic problems for users. “As we have previously stated, when looking at the totality of the ‘Horizon experience’ we remain concerned that, in some circumstances, Horizon can be systemically flawed from a user’s perspective and Post Office has not necessarily provided an appropriate level of support,” it said.
“When told by officials to read out the speech they had written, I refused – and insisted on a briefing meeting with [Post Office CEO] Paula Vennells”
George Freeman, minister
Freeman, who never held ministerial responsibility for the Post Office, accepts there were systemic problems with Horizon, but said Paula Vennells and officials told him otherwise.
“When told by officials to read out the speech they had written, I refused – and insisted on a briefing meeting with Paula Vennells,” Freeman told Computer Weekly.
He said she refused to meet him without her lawyer: “She and officials told me that there was no evidence of a systemic failure in the software, and the department’s lawyer insisted I mustn’t accept liability for the department or Post Office (as an arm’s length body ‘quango’ with an independent legal status).
“I was uncomfortable and raised concerns with the minister responsible at the time. We now know that there was a systemic failure in the software. Lessons must be learned and reforms made to ensure that arm’s length bodies like this can never escape ministerial scrutiny.”
Freeman was not alone in being duped into believing Horizon was reliable.
Stephen Timms was Labour’s minister at the Department for Trade and Industry from 2002 to 2004. In January 2004, while minister for energy, e-commerce and postal services in the Labour government, Timms reassured the MP of former subpostmaster Alan Bates that the Horizon system was okay, because the Post Office said so.
Bates had contacted Bett