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Post Office ‘acted the victim’ and civil servants ‘abandoned their principles’, says former minister

Former government minister tells inquiry the Post Office always played the victim of subpostmasters that it considered either ‘incompetent’ or ‘criminal’

Karl Flinders
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Published: 24 Jul 2024 16:45

The Post Office always acted like the victim of “incompetent” or “criminal” subpostmasters when it faced pressure in relation to problems experienced by users of its error-prone Horizon system, the public inquiry has been told.

Former government minister Margot James also said getting to the truth was hampered because civil servants had “gone rogue” in their handling of the Post Office.

James, who was appointed minister in the Department of Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) in July 2016, said: “There was an assumption on the part of the Post Office board members that the subpostmasters were in the wrong [over Horizon],” she told the Post Office scandal inquiry. “I think that the Post Office board did regard them as incompetent at best and criminal at worst.”

James added that the Post Office was “extraordinarily good at seeing itself as the victim” by suggesting there was an “orchestrated campaign” from subpostmasters that had “no legitimacy”. She said the Post Office “assumed the subpostmasters were guilty of something”.

Asked about accusations that ministers were managed by Whitehall officials, James said she was “alarmed”.

She said evidence showed that officials did not adhere to the civil service values of integrity, honesty, impartiality and objectivity. “It was an example of a team of people that should be following those principles that have gone rogue and abandoned them,” said James.

During recent inquiry evidence hearings, former ministers responsible for the Post Office have lined up to condemn the Shareholder Executive (ShEx), the department in charge of the Post Office, which is an arm’s-length government body.

Unanswered questions

Earlier this week, Conservative peer Lucy Neville-Rolfe said questions about the Horizon scandal were not answered by the civil servants who were supposed to be supporting her. She told the inquiry that ShEx “lost its objectivity” in regard to the unfolding Post Office Horizon scandal.

In her evidence former coalition government minister Jo Swinson was highly critical of ShEx, and raised as a possible contributing factor the issue that many ShEx civil servants came from commercial backgrounds rather than the traditional pool of talent.

“I think while there is a need to have relevant commercial experience when you are dealing with companies, that mindset of public service is an incredibly important part of what needs to be present in all civil servants, even when dealing with commercial matters,” she told the inquiry.

While James was highly critical of the civil service, she also admitted to her own mistakes, including failing to read the investigation reports from independent forensic accountant Second Sight that found problems with the Horizon system.

In her witness statement to the inquiry, she wrote: “I should have asked for a copy of the Second Sight reports. These were held very close by the Post Office, but I could probably have had access to them and I should have read them rather than taken as read the only message the Post Office wanted the reports to convey.”

Computer Weekly lodged a freedom of information request for the final Second Sight report in 2015, which the Post Office initially refused, but it was later published and reported on. One of its major findings was that the Post Office had prosecuted subpostmasters that suffered account shortfalls without first finding out how they occurred, raising the prospect of miscarriages of justice.

At the time, James Arbuthnot, peer and long-time campaigner for justice for affected subpostmasters, said the report confirmed there may have been serious miscarriages of justice perpetrated by the Post Office.

The Post Office scandal was first exposed by Computer Weekly in 2009, revealing the stories of seven subpostmasters and the problems they suffered due to accounting software. It’s one of the biggest miscarriages of justice in British history (see below for timeline of Computer Weekly articles about the scandal, since 2009).

• Also read: What you need to know about the Horizon scandal •

• Also watch: ITV’s documentary – Mr Bates vs The Post Office: The real story •

Timeline: Computer Weekly articles about the scandal since 2009

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