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Oral question asked in the House of Lords, by Lord Forsyth of Drumlean (Conservative). It was answered on Wednesday, 24 January 2024.

Alan Bates and Others v Post Office Limited

Question

My Lords, that is all very well and good, but is it not obvious that there was a catastrophic failure of governance on the part of the Post Office? This is a government-owned business. It is inconceivable that the board did not read the newspapers and was not aware of this. The Post Office is still operating. Should there not at least be a review of the standards of governance on that board?

Answer

The Post Office is publicly owned and set up as a limited company with a sole shareholder, which is the Government. Its governance is as an arm’s-length body with its own board, where the Government have a shareholder representative. It is clear that, over the years, not enough inquiry was made—particularly by non-executive directors—about what was going on. Why was it not asked why, pre-Horizon, prosecutions were between five and 10 per annum and then moved to between 80 and 100 per annum? The question is obvious: what happened here? As a High Court judge said at the 2019 appeal, the faith in the Horizon system was the modern-day

“equivalent of maintaining that the earth is flat”.

There has been a massive failure of corporate governance. Once we have the outcome of the inquiry, steps will be taken to make improvements to ensure this will not happen again.

Secondary information

Type
Oral question
Reference
835 c747 
Session
2023-24
Oral question type
Supplementary
Chamber / Committee
House of Lords chamber
Subjects
Directors Civil proceedings Post Office Horizon IT system
Legislation
Companies Act 2006
Link
View this Oral question on hansard.parliament.uk