Post Office needs to be handed over to postmasters, former boss says

The Post Office needs to be “handed over” to postmasters, its former chairman has stated, accusing the federal government of utilizing it as a “fig leaf” for stalling and evasion.

In a letter seen solely by Sky News, Henry Staunton instructed the enterprise and commerce committee the federal government has “consistently hidden behind the Post Office’s skirts, spinning their way away from trouble”.

He additionally accused the Department for Business and Trade of not proudly owning as much as their “failings” or doing “the decent thing” by sub-postmasters.

Hundreds of sub-postmasters had been wrongly convicted of theft and false accounting based mostly on proof from defective Horizon IT software program between 1999 and 2015.

Mr Staunton, who was sacked in January, wrote to Liam Byrne, the chair of the enterprise and commerce committee, after an explosive assembly on Tuesday.

MPs had been instructed by the previous Post Office chairman that its present chief govt, Nick Read, was underneath investigation.

Mr Staunton was answering questions on an inside probe into his personal behaviour and about allegations he made that he had been instructed to stall on compensation funds to victims whereas he was chairman.

In the letter he stated: “The government cannot continue to dodge its responsibilities, pretending in public to be all heart and compassion, while it allows stony-faced lawyers to rack up their hours doing their best to prevaricate and penny-pinch.”

Read extra:
What is the Post Office scandal, why had been postmasters prosecuted, and what’s Horizon?
Postmistress felt she needed to grovel for compensation

Describing “deep dysfunction” inside the Post Office, he additionally known as for a “hard, concrete deadline” for sufferer compensation, “ideally no more than six months”.

He additionally stated the corporate must be “removed completely” from the compensation course of and known as for an impartial physique to take over.

In his damning evaluation, Mr Staunton stated postmasters are “dying as the government attempts to evade its obligations. It’s the oldest trick in the book.”

As nicely as stating compensation needs to be elevated by £600,000 to £1m for every convicted submit grasp, he stated the Post Office needs to be taken out of presidency management by “handing it over, lock, stock and barrel to the post masters themselves.”

The letter, Mr Staunton acknowledged, is about setting down “some further thoughts on what now needs to be done”.

It is the newest in a confrontation between Mr Staunton and authorities officers.

Last week, enterprise secretary Kemi Badenoch instructed the Commons there was “no evidence whatsoever” of Henry Staunton’s account that he was instructed to stall on compensation funds.

The gradual tempo at which former sub-postmasters are receiving compensation has, nevertheless, led to fierce criticism from victims, attorneys and politicians.

Read extra:
Former Post Office chief govt Paula Vennells formally stripped of CBE
Fujitsu ‘to have obtained £3.4bn’ regardless of function in Post Office scandal

Earlier this week the federal government introduced new measures to hurry up the method, together with an interim cost of £450,000 for individuals who have had convictions overturned.

Sky News has contacted the Post Office for remark.

A supply on the Department for Business and Trade stated: “While the government continues to do all it can to deliver justice for the postmasters, Henry Staunton is still making this all about him: trying to deflect from his terrible tenure as chair of the Post Office and the newspaper interview he gave that has fallen apart under scrutiny.

“We will not be distracted by this fixed mud-flinging, and we hope Mr Staunton will now determine a interval of silence is one of the best ways ahead.”