The Post Office has offered an unreserved apology to the retired judge who is chairing the independent statutory inquiry into the failings of the Post Office’s Horizon IT system for a false statement in the state-owned company’s annual report published two months ago.
Sir Wyn Williams, the inquiry chair, said that correcting the misleading statement had been “an unhappy state of affairs”.
Explaining on page 39 of its report how bonuses for senior Post Office staff had been calculated, the Post Office said of the public inquiry:
All required evidence and information supplied on time, with confirmation from Sir Wyn Williams and team that Post Office’s performance supported and enabled the inquiry to finish in line with expectations.
This target was marked “achieved”.
Nick Wallis, the journalist who has most closely followed the scandal — as the Post Office itself calls it — points out in a coruscating blog that not a word in this statement was true:
Some documents had been disclosed late, according to those involved in the inquiry
There had been no confirmation from Williams or his team (because they were never asked)
The inquiry has not yet ended
Sir Wyn Williams
A few hours before the Coronation weekend, the Post Office chief executive sent a letter to the inquiry chair (by email) saying that his board was considering what to do about the bonuses that had been paid to senior staff in March:
Williams replied:
In a statement setting out the steps that had led to this apology, Williams confirmed:
Neither myself, nor any member of my team, agreed to participate in any way in the confirmation (or otherwise) that Post Office Ltd’s performance in the inquiry was such that it ought to lead to bonuses being paid to Post Office Ltd executives.
Nor did I or any of my team provide confirmation that Post Office Ltd’s participation (or “performance”) in the inquiry supported and enabled the inquiry to finish as at February 2022 (not least because no such statement could ever have been made in circumstances where the inquiry continues to this day).
For reaction to this development and the likely consequences, see Wallis’s excellent blog.
The Post Office, which separated from Royal Mail in 2012 and has over 11,500 branches, says it wants “to remain one of the most admired institutions in the public sector”.