More than a million people are calling for the former head of the Post Office to be stripped of her CBE over the Horizon IT scandal.
The story of more than 700 sub-postmasters and mistresses who were taken to court, left bankrupt, or imprisoned because of a computer system error has been retold in a new ITV drama Mr Bates Vs The Post Office.
A public inquiry into the scandal, which wrongly accused hundreds of innocent workers of theft and false accounting between 1999 and 2015, is still ongoing, with only 93 convictions overturned so far.
As the TV series has grown in popularity, so has a petition to remove the then Post Office chief executive’s CBE.
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Businesswoman and part-time priest
Paula Vennells joined the Post Office as group network director in 2007 having begun her business career at Unilever in 1981, later securing management positions at L’Oreal, Dixons, Argos and Whitbread.
Before that, she had grown up in Manchester and studied French and Russian at Bradford University.
Between 2002 and 2005 she trained as a Church of England deacon and was ordained as a priest in 2006. Alongside her career, she served at three churches in Bedfordshire.
Ms Vennells was promoted to Post Office chief executive in 2012 – the same year it split from Royal Mail.
During her tenure, she oversaw huge financial struggles, which forced the closure of thousands of branches nationwide and forced the service to modernise.
From 2000 the Post Office pursued criminal prosecutions against many of its staff over account shortfalls.
The sub-postmasters and mistresses involved protested their innocence from the beginning, but many were convicted and imprisoned, with their reputations left ruined.
Read more:
What is the Post Office scandal?
The true story behind Mr Bates Vs The Post Office
The year in which Ms Vennells took charge of the Post Office, it bowed to mounting pressure to investigate the allegations being made about the IT system by several sub-postmasters.
It commissioned the private investigation company Second Sight to file a report, which ultimately concluded there were no widespread accounting or IT issues.
In 2017 a group of staff managed to bring their case against the Post Office to the High Court.
As it progressed, Ms Vennells faced increasing criticism, and she eventually stepped down from her role in 2019.
In the New Years Honours List at the beginning of that year, she had been given a CBE “for services to the Post Office and to charity”.
‘Truly sorry’
In December 2019, the case concluded, with Mr Justice Fraser ruling the sub-postmasters should have their convictions quashed and that the Horizon system was to blame for the scandal.
Mr Fraser described the Post Office’s evidence in the case as “institutional obstinacy”.
Following the ruling, Ms Vennells said: “I am truly sorry for the suffering caused to the 39 subpostmasters as a result of their convictions which were overturned last week.”
Soon after she reportedly agreed to cease her duties as an associate minister. The Bishop of St Albans, whose father was a sub-postmaster, was quoted saying it was the “right” decision.
She also stepped aside from non-executive leadership roles at Morrisons and Dunelm, according to reports.
After leaving the Post Office in 2019, Ms Vennells became chairman of Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust.
But the following year, with the Post Office appealing the High Court ruling, healthcare regulator the Care Quality Commission (CQC) expressed concerns over Ms Vennells keeping her position, and it was announced she was stepping down for personal reasons in December 2020.
Amid an increasing backlash, Conservative peer Lord Arbuthnot who led the campaign in parliament on behalf of the sub-postmasters and mistresses, said: “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 sub-postmasters. However, there seem to have been no consequences for her.”
Mr Fraser’s original ruling was upheld in 2021 and a statutory public inquiry into the Horizon scandal began in 2022.
The Metropolitan Police has also confirmed it is investigating the Post Office over potential fraud offences related to the scandal.
