Post Office Inquiry: If Paula Vennells’s first day was about ignorance, then day two made ignorance look like bliss
If Paula Vennells’s first day in the witness stand was memorable for her tears and self-justifications at facing public scrutiny for the first time in nine years, the second was less dramatic but more substantial.
During her seven years as chief executive, hundreds of sub-postmasters were sent to jail based on flawed evidence thrown up by the Post Office’s Horizon IT system.
Ms Vennells’s defence is that despite her experience – she was in senior roles for five years before taking the top job – she just did not know.
She spent much of day one establishing just how complete her ignorance was.
Post Office inquiry: Day 2 of evidence from former CEO – As it happened
Ms Vennells was in tears during her first day of evidence
She didn’t know there were bugs in the Horizon system before she became CEO. She didn’t know that branch accounts could be accessed remotely.
She didn’t even know the Post Office carried out its own prosecutions, a power it has held since the days when Dick Turpin was a greater threat to the bottom line than sub-postmasters.
Day two was largely concerned with what she did when she finally did find out what was going on, and it made ignorance look like bliss.
Over more than six hours of questioning, a picture emerged of an obsession with spin, public relations, media management, and the Post Office’s reputation being placed over and above concern for sub-postmasters.
Former Post Office boss Paula Vennells arrives for her second day of giving evidence to the Post Office Horizon IT inquiry. Pic: PA
It was most clearly exposed in correspondence between Ms Vennells and the then Post Office communications director Mark Davies.
It concerned her suggestion in 2013 that the Post Office conduct a review of all false accounting cases over the previous five to 10 years.
That plan was never pursued, and inquiry counsel Jason Beer asked if that amounted to “a lost decade until miscarriages of justice were discovered?”
“It may well have done,” she agreed. “It may well have done.”
Post Office Horizon IT scandal inquiry counsel Jason Beer KC
That begged the question, why didn’t it happen, and part of the answer came in an email from Mr Davies offering his view.
“If we say publicly that we will look at last cases… whether from recent history or going further back, we will open this up very significantly into front page news. In media terms it becomes very mainstream, very high-profile,” he wrote.
“To what extent did what Mr Davies advice here affect your decision-making?” she was asked.
“I would never – it was simply not the way I worked,” she said.
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Mr Beer then produced her reply to Mr Davies: “You were right to call this out. And I will take your steer, no issue,” she wrote.
“There are two main objectives, the most urgent being to manage the media, the second to make sure that we do address the concerns of JA [James Arbuthnot] and Alan Bates.”
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“You did take the advice of the PR guy, didn’t you?” Mr Beer asked.
Her response, that she really didn’t remember, was drowned out by groans of derision from the sub-postmasters in the room, prompting chair Sir Wyn Williams to call for order.
Failure to remember is a consistent theme of Ms Vennells’s evidence, perhaps peaking with this, when asked about a 2013 board meeting: “My recollection,” she said, “is that I don’t recall.”
UK
Election 2024: I spent a week travelling on night buses to see a view of the UK politicians don’t
There is a rhythm to a night at the Bolton Interchange.
People dart from arriving buses, racing across the concourse to catch departing ones. Sometimes they do, sometimes they don’t. Each rush is followed by a brief lull.
Every night, hundreds of lives intersect at the Bolton Interchange. The night-shift workers and commuters, those out on the town and those just a little bit lost.
Each one has their own story, some are happy to chat, most lose themselves in whatever is playing through their headphones.
I spent a week on the night buses. With the election looming, what the politicians are experiencing on their campaign battle buses is not what ordinary people are seeing. Theirs is a very different perspective.
Sky News’s Greg Milam spoke to passengers on night buses
There is an unmistakeable despair about the state of the country, an indifference to what the political process might do about it and a dark humour about the future. There are very few flickers of optimism.
From the bus-spotter who says the country needs “a good clean”, to those who yearn for a Britain of a different age, to Pete, the elderly bluegrass guitarist heading for an open-mic night.
What does he think of Britain today? “Me and 50 mates are going to go to Lake Windermere to take a s*** in the water. We’ll see if they do anything to stop us, because they don’t seem to be stopping the water companies.”
It is just one of the many raw expressions of the frustration and hopelessness that I hear. As Carl, the night supervisor at the interchange, says: “Late shifts are different here. It is a real eye-opener.”
‘Vote? I just can’t be bothered’
With her shock of white hair and ankle-length peach quilted coat, Sophia Talbot is hard to miss as she jogs across the interchange concourse. She turned 80 a few weeks ago but is still working full-time. She is taking the 125 bus home after completing filming in Bolton as an extra on the TV drama, Waterloo Road.
Sophia: The country is a mess. When I first came to Bolton 21 years ago it was a really nice place and now it’s all run down and boarded up and I think that speaks for everywhere.
Every time I go to the supermarket, I seem to get less for my money. I can drive but I can’t afford a car so that’s why I take the bus.
I do the extras work for a bit of extra money. Extra extra money, I call it.
I don’t think I’ll last long enough to see things in this country change for the better. It will take a long time for that to happen because it has gone down too far.
I probably won’t even vote. I didn’t last time or the time before if I remember right. I just can’t be bothered, and I know that’s not good because if you don’t do it, you can’t blame anybody but yourself, can you?
‘I’m treated as third class, common muck’
It is just after 8pm, still light on this early summer evening, and Janey Fairhurst is passing through the interchange on her way from Bury to Wigan, after spending the day with a bereaved friend. She lost her job in medical research in November and, after 10 interviews, is still searching for work.
Janey: My life is drastically different to what it was. There are just not enough jobs. There are jobs down South but I feel the North gets forgotten about quite a lot when it comes to politics. Maybe they need to remember that we started the industrial revolution and they wouldn’t be here if it weren’t for that so maybe give the North some more funding and more jobs.
The empire is over, Britain has just crumbled, it has been going in the wrong direction for a long time and there’s no trust between the people and the politicians.
When I was in work I felt like I was winning. I could buy the Tropicana instead of Tesco’s own brand orange juice. You don’t really think about the politics of it all when you’ve got the money.
Now, I feel like I’m treated as third class, common muck and I’m not. I come from a good family. I feel frustrated, angry, sad, belittled, in a way – judged. I worked so hard to get where I was and now I can’t get back into it.
‘The cost of living has put a lot on people’
Three buses in the morning and three more in the evening are the routine of Saila Shabir’s working life. From her home in Great Lever to her job in Manchester, she says her time spent travelling has given her perspective on the value of community and the state of the country.
I think it wouldn’t do any harm for everyone to get on the night bus and experience life from this side of things. It might not be their cup of tea but it is a way to understand what people are saying and doing.
I find it uplifting travelling on the bus in the evening because you get to see people from all sorts of backgrounds. It is amazing, really, and it opens your mind that there’s huge prospects and a really expansive community that we could all bring together under one roof.
I’m not going to say I’m despairing but the cost of living has put a lot on people. People need to work together, we can’t just rely on one set of people to do it all. I am hopeful because I do trust the right people will do the job properly. I do see the darker side of life on the buses sometimes but you need the dark to see the light.
‘I have never known this country in such a state’
From his blue suede boots to his embroidered collar, Rick Conlon is dressed for a night on the town. It is 11pm and he is making his way home to Rochdale. At 6ft4in with a shaved head, it’s easy to see why he’s well known in local boxing circles. He is jovial despite despairing of Britain today.
Rick: I’m 58 and I’m not political particularly but I have never known this country in such a state. I just think it’s really tough at the moment. I know inflation has come down but there’s a lot of people far worse off than me struggling for food and the basic necessities.
We’re the fifth-richest country in the world, I find it incredible. When I was 16, 17, 18, in Margaret Thatcher’s time, 1981 and 1982, with all that political and social unrest, the country was still a better country. We had massive unemployment but the country was still a better country. People were looked after.
There’s that old saying about how you can judge a country by how it looks after its elderly. It’s just ridiculous how little they’re paid and how little they’re thought of.
If there’s one thing that makes me optimistic, bus fares make me optimistic. Two pounds – you can’t argue with that. Even then they’re probably subsidised but that’s great, because this is a great country, it’s just the government letting us down.
‘If it was up to me, I’d move country’
Muj Malik is travelling home with his partner Tabitha and five-month-old son, Zair, after another exhausting day searching for a new family home. They have faced months of frustration on growing council house waiting lists and, they say, see countless videos on TikTok from other young families in the same situation.
Muj: Things are not good in this country. My grandma moved here from Pakistan and my mum was born here so I’m third generation but, if it was up to me, I’d move country. I don’t want to live here for the rest of my life. I don’t see the point because the country is just going sideways.
At the end of the day, I’ve got a mixed-race baby, I grew up in a predominantly white area. I like the country and the people and I know there are people far worse off than us. But you’ve got war veterans from this country, people who have gone to war for this country, they’ve put their lives on the line, they’ve lost friends, and you’ve got them sitting outside of Asda homeless with no help whatsoever.
This country is fading miserably. I like the people, it’s not about the people, it’s about the way the country is run.
Victims are being taunted by criminals who are being released early from Scotland’s prisons today under emergency plans to tackle overcrowding, Sky News has been told.
Jails across the UK are in crisis with governors in England and Wales warning they could run out of space within days.
From this morning, the SNP government in Edinburgh is allowing more than 500 Scottish inmates, serving short term sentences, out early in a bid to tackle the issue.
Prisoners inside for under four years who have 180 days or less left to serve are being released in waves over the coming weeks across all Scottish prisons.
Sex offenders and domestic abusers are among those exempt, with governors handed a veto.
The charity Victim Support Scotland told Sky News the system will lead to reoffending.
Kate Wallace, its chief executive, said: “The last time this happened, over 40% had re-offended within six months. That created more victims, and we are fully expecting that to be the case again.
“Victims are concerned about the risks to their own personal safety, and we are aware already of some prisoners who have been in contact with victims saying that they are going to be released, and it being used as a coercive control tool.”
The prison population in Scotland is almost 8,300, more than exceeding the target operating capacity of 8,007.
The Scottish Prison Service insists safety is a priority.
A spokesman said: “Governors have vetoed anyone they found posed an immediate risk to individuals or groups, with the help of intelligence from police and social work.”
Keep up with all the latest news from the UK and around the world by following Sky News
Latest Ministry of Justice figures show English and Welsh jails currently have 87,395 inmates, with maximum spaces standing at 88,778.
The Prison Governors’ Association (PGA) claims police will be unable to detain people because there’s not enough room behind bars.
Some inmates in England and Wales are being freed up to 70 days early in a similar move to Scotland.
However, the Ministry of Justice was unable to tell Sky News how many convicts have been granted freedom since the system came into force in May.
The crisis has been put in to sharp focus with just days to go until the general election.
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Overcrowding is likely to be one of the biggest first challenges for whoever takes the reins at 10 Downing St.
The Conservatives previously pledged 20,000 new prison places by the mid-2020s but only 6,000 have been created so far. The Tory manifesto now aims to deliver the plan by 2030.
Labour also plan to create 20,000 spaces by allowing ministers to override local authorities on planning decisions.
But speaking to journalists on Tuesday, Sir Keir Starmer did not say whether he would scrap the early release system despite being heavily critical of the government’s strategy.
The Liberal Democrats promise to end overcrowding completely.
Scottish Justice Secretary Angela Constance said: “Immediate and urgent action is needed to deal with the significant recent rise in the prison population.
“In cases of emergency release, we have added two other ways to receive information.
“Victims can go through one of four named victim support organisations who can request information about a prisoner’s release on their behalf.
“Alternatively, a victim can contact the Scottish Prison Service directly to request that information.”
Four men have been arrested on suspicion of aggravated trespass in the grounds of the prime minister’s home, police have confirmed.
The incident took place at Rishi Sunak’s constituency address in Kirby Sigston, North Yorkshire, while he was attending events in London to mark the Japanese state visit.
A police statement said officers were “with the four men within one minute of them entering the grounds”.
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The arrests are connected to a protest by campaigners from Youth Demand. It describes itself as a group of young people who want “the Tories and the Labour Party commit to a two-way arms embargo on Israel, and to stop all new oil and gas licences”.
A spokesperson for the group said three of those arrested were taking part in the demonstration, while the fourth person was an independent photographer.
Keep up with all the latest news from the UK and around the world by following Sky News
A North Yorkshire Police spokesperson said: “They were detained at around 12.40pm before being escorted off the property and arrested on suspicion of aggravated trespass.
“The men, aged 52 from London, 43 from Bolton, 21 from Manchester, and 20 from Chichester, remain in police custody for questioning and enquiries are ongoing.”
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It comes after a separate incident last summer, when protesters scaled the roof of Mr Sunak’s home.
They held up banners which said “NO NEW OIL” and draped the building in fabric. It happened while the prime minister and his family were away on holiday in California.
Amy Rugg-Easey, 33, Alexandra Wilson, 32, Michael Grant, 64, and Mathieu Soete, 38, have pleaded not guilty to criminal damage, with a two-day trial set to take place in July.
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