Paula Vennells | |
---|---|
Born | Paula Anne Vennells 21 February 1959 Denton, Lancashire, U.K. |
Education | Manchester High School for Girls |
Alma mater | University of Bradford (BA) |
Occupation | |
Known for | Post Office scandal |
Spouse(s) | John Wilson (m. 1994) |
Children | 2 |
Paula Anne Vennells (born 21 February 1959) is a British former businesswoman who was the chief executive officer (CEO) of Post Office Limited from 2012 to 2019, years which saw the continuing prosecution of innocent subpostmasters and a very costly and unsuccessful attempt to defend a group action. She is also an Anglican priest.
Vennells was the CEO of Post Office Limited during the latter part of the British Post Office scandal, in which more than 900 subpostmasters were wrongly convicted, between 1999 and 2015, of theft, false accounting and fraud because of apparent shortfalls at their branches, due to flaws in the Horizon accounting software used by the Post Office. Many more paid the Post Office for alleged shortfalls or had their contracts terminated. The actions of the Post Office caused the loss of jobs, bankruptcy, family breakdown, criminal convictions, prison sentences and at least four suicides.
In 2019 she became the chair of the Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust, but left the role the following year. In 2021, after the convictions of 39 subpostmasters were quashed, she resigned from her duties as an Anglican priest and non-executive directorships at the retailer Dunelm and the supermarket chain Morrisons. Vennells had been appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in 2019; the honour was formally revoked in 2024 for "bringing the honours system into disrepute".
Born on 21 February 1959 as Paula Anne Vennells, [1] [2] she was born and grew up in Denton, Lancashire. [3] [4] [5] Her father was an industrial chemist and academic, her mother a great-granddaughter of Sir James Watts of Abney Hall, mayor of Manchester in the 1850s and grandfather of Conservative party member of Parliament James Watts. [6] Having won a funded place, she went to Manchester High School for Girls, an all-girls private school in Manchester. [5] She studied Russian, French and Economics at the University of Bradford, graduating with a Bachelor of Arts (BA) degree in 1981. [1] [7]
Vennells began her career as a graduate trainee at Unilever in 1981, and went on to work for L'Oréal, Lunn Poly, Dixons Retail, Argos, and Whitbread. [5] [8] In 2007 she joined Post Office Limited as group network director. [9] On 1 April 2012, she became its chief executive officer (CEO). [10] During her time as CEO, the Post Office went from losing £120 million in 2012/13 to reporting a profit of £35 million in 2017/18. [11] The liabilities now known to have accrued over that period due to the Horizon scandal, however, were estimated in early 2024 to be £160 million in compensation and £298 million in ongoing legal fees already paid, [12] and £1 billion of taxpayer money set aside for future compensation. [13]
In her role leading the Post Office, Vennells earned a total of £5.1m, peaking in 2018 when she received £718,300 in salary, bonuses, pensions and other benefits. [7] In 2016 Vennells was appointed as a non-executive director of supermarket chain Morrisons, in addition to her position at the Post Office. [14]
In February 2019 it was announced that she would step down from her Post Office role, and that month she was appointed as a non-executive board member at the Cabinet Office. [15] In April that year she took over as the chair of Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust; she resigned from this role in 2021. [16] [17]
From 2002 to 2005, Vennells trained for holy orders on the St Albans and Oxford Ministry Course. [1] She was ordained in the Church of England as a deacon in 2005 and as a priest in 2006. [1] She has served as a non-stipendiary minister at the Church of St Owen, Bromham in the Diocese of St Albans. [1] [18] On 10 January 2024, BBC News reported sources told them that, around 2017 when Richard Chartres's tenure as Bishop of London was drawing to a close, Vennells had been interviewed for the post and reached the final shortlist of three. [19] She relinquished her clerical duties in 2021, but remains an ordained priest. [20] Her membership of the Church of England's Ethical Investment Advisory Group was terminated in 2021. [21]
Vennells was the CEO of Post Office Ltd during the latter part of the Post Office scandal, which involved more than 900 subpostmasters being wrongly convicted of theft, false accounting and fraud between 1999 and 2015 because of shortfalls at their branches that were in fact errors of the Horizon accounting software used by the Post Office. [22] In addition over 2,000 subpostmasters paid for shortfalls caused by Horizon and many had their contracts terminated. The actions of the Post Office caused the loss of jobs, bankruptcy, family breakdown, criminal convictions, prison sentences and at least four suicides. [23] [24] In 2013, Post Office Limited hired forensic accounting firm Second Sight, headed by Ron Warmington, to investigate the Horizon software losses. Warmington discovered the system was flawed and faulty, but Vennells was unhappy with Warmington's report and terminated their contract. [25] Prior to her role as CEO, Vennells was the Chief Operating Officer of Post Office Ltd, a position in which –according to the evidence of the then CEO, David Smith –she had responsibility for management of the "operational use" of the Horizon software. [26] : 12
Acting as a private prosecutor, the Post Office repeatedly failed to make full disclosure of known Horizon problems either to defendants or to the courts in hundreds of cases. According to the Criminal Cases Review Commission the nondisclosure is "the most widespread miscarriage of justice the CCRC has ever seen and represents the biggest single series of wrongful convictions in British legal history". [27]
In Bates & Others v Post Office Ltd , a group action brought by 555 subpostmasters against the Post Office, the presiding judge, Mr Justice Fraser described the Post Office's approach to the case as "institutional obstinacy". Vennells subsequently issued a statement, saying: "It was and remains a source of great regret to me that these colleagues and their families were affected over so many years. I am truly sorry we were unable to find both a solution and a resolution outside of litigation and for the distress this caused." [28] The Post Office spent £100 million of public money in unsuccessfully defending the case. [29] Following the conclusion of the case Vennells's tenure as CEO was criticised in Parliament. The Conservative peer Lord Arbuthnot of Edrom said that "The hallmark of Paula Vennells' time as CEO was that she was willing to accept appalling advice from people in her management and legal teams. The consequences of this were far-reaching for the Post Office and devastating for the subpostmasters", and he described the behaviour of the Post Office under her leadership as "both cruel and incompetent". [30] [31]
In March 2020, Vennells resigned her position as a non-executive board member at the Cabinet Office. [32] [33] The Care Quality Commission (CQC) discussed concerns about Vennells's continuing role in the NHS on 8 July 2020. [34] On 3 December 2020, it was announced that Vennells would step down as chair of the Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust, a position for which she was paid £50,000 a year, in April 2021, for personal reasons. [35] [36]
In a BBC Panorama programme screened on 8 June 2020, reporter Nick Wallis is seen phoning Vennells, who terminates the call rather than answer his questions. Wallis says "this is one of the biggest frustrations of covering this story ... the consistent refusal of the chief executive and the people at the top to answer serious questions about what has been happening". [37]
In June 2020, the Criminal Cases Review Commission sent 47 cases, in which subpostmasters had been prosecuted to the Court of Appeal, as potential miscarriages of justice. [38] During the case, the Post Office's conduct under Vennells's leadership was described as an instance of "appalling and shameful behaviour". [39] In April 2021, 39 former postmasters had their convictions quashed, and another 22 cases were still being investigated by the Criminal Cases Review Commission. A few days later, Vennells agreed to step back from her duties as an associate minister. [40] The Bishop of St Albans, (himself the son of a retired subpostmaster) said that it was "right" that Vennells did so. [40] [41] She apologised, saying "I am truly sorry for the suffering caused to the 39 subpostmasters as a result of their convictions which were overturned last week".
On the same day, she resigned her non-executive directorships at UK supermarket chain Morrisons and furnishings group Dunelm. [42] She also resigned as a governor of Bedford School, a position she had held since 2014. [43] In May 2021 she left the Church of England's Ethical Investment Advisory Group on which she had previously served. [21]
Vennells was portrayed by Lia Williams in a four-part television drama series, Mr Bates vs The Post Office , broadcast on ITV in January 2024 and released in its entirety on ITVX. [44]
Over three days in May 2024, Vennells gave sometimes tearful evidence to the statutory public inquiry into the Horizon scandal, chaired by Sir Wyn Williams. On the first two days she was questioned by counsel to the inquiry, Jason Beer KC. On the third day it was the turn of counsel for the core participants, including the subpostmaster victims, to question Vennells. [45] Vennells had submitted two witness statements totalling over 798 pages to the inquiry, which she denied was a "craven, self-serving account", as suggested by one of the counsel representing victims. [45] [46] [47]
Much of the evidence heard during the three days related to the extent that Vennells had known of flaws in the Horizon IT system and the unsafe nature of prosecutions of subpostmasters. At one point the inquiry was shown a recent exchange of texts between Vennells and Dame Moya Greene, former CEO of Royal Mail, in which Greene said "I think you knew… How could you not have known?" Asked the same question by Beer, Vennells said "This is a situation that is so complex, it is a question I have asked myself as well." [45] During her testimony, Vennells consistently stated she was unaware of the facts or, when confronted with documents that showed she had been made aware of them, said she had not understood them. [48] She said she had given MPs incorrect information in 2012 when she told them there had been no unsuccessful Horizon prosecutions. She said that the Post Office had known but she personally had not known. [49] She said she had been "too trusting" and accused five key executives (IT executives Mike Young and Lesley Sewell, and legal general counsels Susan Crichton, Chris Aujard and Jane MacLeod) of having withheld information from her. [46]
In the 2019 New Year Honours, Vennells was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) "for services to the Post Office and to charity" [50]
In 2021, after the successful appeals by subpostmasters prosecuted and convicted in the Post Office scandal, the Communication Workers Union called for Vennells to be stripped of her CBE. [51] In the same year, an online petition was created on the website 38 Degrees requesting that the Honours Forfeiture Committee revoke Vennells's CBE; in January 2024, following the broadcast of Mr Bates vs The Post Office, it attracted significant attention and by 9 January had received 1.2 million signatures. [52] [53]
On 8 January 2024, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak's spokesman said he would "strongly support" the Honours Forfeiture Committee if it decided to look at revoking Vennells's CBE appointment. [54] On 9 January, Vennells stated that she would return her CBE "with immediate effect". [55] The honour was formally revoked by King Charles III on 23 February for "bringing the honours system into disrepute". [56] [57] [58]
Vennells met her husband, John, at the Bradford University dinghy club. [59] He is a former global vice-president at the international engineering firm ABB. They married in 1994, have two adult sons, [5] [60] and live at Box End, near Bedford, in a Grade II listed property. [61] [62]
The Serious Fraud Office (SFO) is a non-ministerial government department of the Government of the United Kingdom that investigates and prosecutes serious or complex fraud and corruption in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. The SFO is accountable to the Attorney General for England and Wales, and was established by the Criminal Justice Act 1987, an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom.
Post Office Limited, commonly known as the Post Office, is a retail post office company in the United Kingdom that provides a wide range of products including postage stamps and banking to the public through its nationwide network of around 11,500 post office branches. Most of these branch post offices are run by franchise partners or by independent business people known as subpostmasters; the remaining 1% are directly managed by Post Office Limited.
Adam Alexander Crozier is a Scottish businessman who was formerly the chief executive officer of media company ITV plc, operator of the ITV television network covering most of the United Kingdom.
Womble Bond Dickinson is a transatlantic law firm formed in 2017 as a result of a merger between UK-based Bond Dickinson LLP and US-based Womble Carlyle Sandridge & Rice, LLP. The combination followed a strategic alliance announcement made in 2016. The firm has 32 locations across the United States and the United Kingdom offering services in 12 different sectors.
Box End is a village located in the Borough of Bedford in Bedfordshire, England. It is in the civil parish of Kempston Rural.
Dunelm Group plc, trading as Dunelm, is a British home furnishings retailer operating in the United Kingdom. One of the largest homeware retailers in the UK, the company headquarters are in Syston, England. It is listed on the London Stock Exchange and is a constituent of the FTSE 250 Index. Until 2013 the company traded as Dunelm Mill.
The National Federation of SubPostmasters (NFSP) is a membership organisation, which represents subpostmasters in the United Kingdom. Subpostmasters are self-employed business operators, approved by Post Office Ltd to act as their agents in running Post Office branches (outlets). In Jan 2023, the NFSP had 6727 members who operated approximately 9,300 post office branches. Post Office Ltd is contractually obliged to consult the NFSP on behalf of subpostmasters.
Timothy Charles Parker is a British executive. He has been chairman of the National Trust, Post Office Ltd and Her Majesty's Courts and Tribunals Service (HMCTS). From 1986 to 2014, he was successively the CEO of Kenwood, Clarks Shoes, Kwik-Fit, the AA and Samsonite.
Diana Mary "Dido" Harding, Baroness Harding of Winscombe is a British businesswoman and life peer who served as chair of NHS Improvement from 2017 to 2021 and as interim chief executive of the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) and head of NHS Test and Trace from 2020 to 2021.
The Honours Forfeiture Committee is an ad hoc committee convened under the United Kingdom Cabinet Office, which considers cases referred to the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom where an individual's actions subsequent to their being awarded a British honour raises the question of whether they should be allowed to continue to be a holder. Recommendations are made to the Monarch of the United Kingdom, who has the sole authority to rescind an honour.
The British Post Office scandal, also called the Horizon IT scandal, involved Post Office Limited pursuing thousands of innocent subpostmasters for shortfalls in their accounts, which had in fact been caused by faults in Horizon, accounting software developed and maintained by Fujitsu. Between 1999 and 2015, more than 900 subpostmasters were convicted of theft, fraud and false accounting based on faulty Horizon data, with about 700 of these prosecutions carried out by the Post Office. Other subpostmasters were prosecuted but not convicted, forced to cover shortfalls caused by Horizon with their own money, or had their contracts terminated. The court cases, criminal convictions, imprisonments, loss of livelihoods and homes, debts, and bankruptcies took a heavy toll on the victims and their families, leading to stress, illness, family breakdown, and at least four suicides. In 2024, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak described the scandal as one of the greatest miscarriages of justice in British history.
Dr Sam Barrell CBE is an English doctor. She joined the Francis Crick Institute in London as Chief Operating Officer in September 2017 and in 2022 was promoted to Deputy Chief Executive Officer. She is responsible for leading the operational management and running of the institute and deputises for the Director, Sir Paul Nurse.
Brian Altman KC is an English lawyer. Altman was First Senior Treasury Counsel at the Central Criminal Court from 2010 to 2013. Altman is the joint Head of Chambers of 2 Bedford Row, barristers' chambers.
Lisa Marie Osofsky is an American-British lawyer who served as Director of the UK's Serious Fraud Office (SFO) from September 2018 until August 2023. She was succeeded by Nick Ephgrave.
The Greensill scandal is a political controversy in the United Kingdom related to lobbying activities on behalf of financial services company Greensill Capital. It implicated former Prime Minister David Cameron, former Cabinet Secretary Lord Heywood and several other civil servants, and occurred during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Bates & Others v Post Office Ltd was a group legal action taken by 555 subpostmasters against Post Office Limited (POL), commonly known as the Post Office. It was heard by Justice Fraser in the High Court between 2017 and 2019. Six judgments were handed down, two of them dealing with substantive matters, while the other four dealt with procedural matters. The Common Issues trial examined the contract between the subpostmasters and the Post Office and found largely in favour of the claimants, while the Horizon Issues trial found that Horizon, the Post Office accounting software, contained bugs, errors and defects that could cause shortfalls in the subpostmasters' accounts. Further scheduled trials were not held, as the claimants and the Post Office settled after the Horizon Issues trial.
Events from the year 2024 in the United Kingdom.
Mr Bates vs The Post Office is a four-part British television drama series for ITV, written by Gwyneth Hughes, directed by James Strong and starring an ensemble cast led by Toby Jones. The series is a dramatisation of the British Post Office scandal, a miscarriage of justice in which hundreds of subpostmasters were wrongly prosecuted privately and publicly for theft, false accounting or fraud due to a faulty computer system called Horizon. It was broadcast on four consecutive days from 1 January 2024.
Alan Bates is a former subpostmaster and a leading campaigner for victims of the British Post Office scandal, in which thousands of subpostmasters were accused of dishonesty when faulty Post Office accounting software created shortfalls in their accounts. After the Post Office terminated his contract in 2003 over a false shortfall, he sought out other subpostmasters in the same position and went on to found the Justice For Subpostmasters Alliance in 2009. The group took the Post Office to court and, following two favourable judgments in Bates & Others v Post Office Ltd, accepted a settlement of £57.75 million, which left the 555 claimants with little money after legal fees were paid. Bates has continued to campaign for fair compensation for subpostmasters.
Jo Hamilton is a former subpostmaster and a passionate campaigner for justice for victims of the British Post Office scandal. She ran a village post office in Hampshire from 2001 until 2006, when she was suspended and then wrongly prosecuted for shortfalls caused by the Post Office faulty accounting software, Horizon. She was convicted of false accounting, received a supervision order and had to pay the Post Office £36,000 although it was money she did not owe. Her treatment at the hands of the Post Office had a devastating impact on her health, family and finances. She went on to be a founding member of the Justice for Subpostmasters Alliance (JFSA) and one of the 555 litigants in the successful group legal action of Bates & Others v Post Office Ltd. Her criminal conviction was overturned in April 2021.
In May 2021, after a temporary leave of absence, Paula Vennells stepped down from the EIAG
...There have been 983 convictions - 700 of which were privately initiated by the Post Office - linked to the faulty Horizon IT programme
I am, however, aware of the calls from sub-postmasters and others to return my CBE. I have listened and I confirm that I return my CBE with immediate effect.