In recent weeks, Britain has seen an outpouring of anger at what has been described as one among the best miscarriages of justice in its history: the Post Office scandal.
Over greater than a decade, lots of of local businesspeople were prosecuted on the idea of a faulty IT system, and the federal government has only in the near past begun to right its wrongs. A TV dramatization of the saga aired last month has generated further outrage and empathy for the innocent victims.
And since the Post Office’s former CEO happened to be a member of the clergy, the Church of England can also be attempting to learn lessons from the scandal.
What is the Post Office scandal?
Between 1999 and 2015, 736 people running local post offices (“sub-postmasters”) were prosecuted for false accounting, theft, and fraud, based on information from a web-based accounting system called Horizon. Hundreds went to prison. Families were left bankrupt, marriages collapsed, and lives were ruined.
Sub-postmasters had raised concerns about Horizon and the shortfalls it reported, and eventually 550 of them brought a bunch legal motion. The Post Office agreed in 2019 to pay out £58 million ($73 million) but didn’t admit liability. In 2021, the Court of Appeal ruled that “the failures of investigation and disclosure were … so egregious as to make the prosecution of any of the ‘Horizon cases’ an affront to the conscience of the court.”
A public inquiry is now underway to find out what went incorrect. Although media first exposed the scandal, a recent TV miniseries, Mr Bates vs The Post Office, has sparked outrage amongst a much wider public.
What is the Post Office?
More than a mail service, the Post Office is an establishment that is an element of the material of British society and dates back to the rule of King Charles I in 1635. The postal market remained a state monopoly until 2006 and, while much has modified in recent many years, the Post Office continues to be entirely owned by the British government. With greater than 11,500 branches, it’s the biggest retailer within the UK. Much of the population is capable of walk to a branch.
The Post Office has expanded to supply banking for people and small businesses. The overwhelming majority of local post offices are operated by franchise partners: “sub-postmasters.” They are sometimes considered pillars of the community: familiar faces entrusted with 1000’s of kilos of local money. Another vital fact is that the Post Office is capable of bring private prosecutions. In fact, Royal Mail solicitors are believed to the earliest known formal investigators and prosecutors on the planet.
When did the Horizon scandal begin?
More than 20 years ago, sub-postmasters flagged Horizon for generating shortfalls in accounts that they couldn’t explain. But the Post Office approach was to demand that they either make up the shortfall or face prosecution. In 2004, a sub-postmaster from Northern England, Lee Castleton, was made bankrupt after losing a legal battle with the Post Office.
Although the sub-postmasters eventually formed an alliance, each were initially told that they were the one ones reporting problems with Horizon. A key aim of the general public inquiry is to ascertain who knew of faults with Horizon and when. Last month, one among the executives at Fujitsu, the IT company that ran Horizon, said that bugs had been present within the system for “nearly twenty years” and that the Post Office had been made aware. The chief executive of the Post Office from 2012 to 2019, Paula Vennells, told a parliamentary inquiry in 2020 that Fujitsu had assured her Horizon was “fundamentally sound.”
What is the connection to the Church of England?
Paula Vennells was unusual in serving because the CEO of a serious company while also being ordained. She became a priest within the Church of England in 2006 and worked as a “non-stipendiary” (unpaid) minister at village churches in an area north of London.
She was a trustee of Hymns Ancient & Modern, the charity that owns the independent Church Times newspaper, serving a full nine-year term that resulted in January 2019. She also served in numerous advisory roles for the church, including its Ethical Investment Advisory Group from 2019 until 2021, when she resigned.
Last month, it was reported that she had been considered for appointment because the bishop of London—probably the most senior roles within the church. Although she was not appointed, eyebrows were raised concerning the shortlisting, on condition that she had held no other senior roles within the church. A Church of England spokesperson has said that “more questions must have been asked concerning the appropriateness of Vennells’s involvement in various committees and dealing groups.”
In January, she handed back her Commander of the British Empire honor, which was bestowed upon her by the queen in 2019 for services to the Post Office and to charity. Vennells said, “I’m truly sorry for the devastation caused to the sub-postmasters and their families, whose lives were torn apart by being wrongly accused and wrongly prosecuted consequently of the Horizon system. I now intend to proceed to deal with assisting the inquiry and is not going to make any further public comment until it has concluded.” She stepped back from public ministry in 2021.
How has the church responded?
The bishop who leads the realm through which Paula Vennells has carried out her local ministry, Alan Smith, is the son of a former sub-postmaster. After the 2021 court ruling, he expressed his “distress on the miscarriage of justice that so many sub-postmasters have suffered” and last month he said that the TV dramatization “rekindles the suffering and pain of the sub-postmasters and their families who’re victims of the Horizon IT scandal, and anger in all of us for such a serious miscarriage of justice.”
He added, “I hope and pray that the general public inquiry will explain fully the sequence of events, provide redress for the victims and hold to account the responsible people and organisations.” Some clergy have personal links to the scandal, including those that supported sub-postmasters facing prosecution.
What has the recent response been like?
Recent weeks have seen an outpouring of sympathy for those wrongly convicted and anger at how the Post Office pursued prosecutions. The subject of the miniseries, Alan Bates, has been hailed as a hero, with the sub-postmasters considered David up against Goliath. The story has tapped into wider anxieties about large-scale IT projects and company faith in technology, with many individuals incredulous that the Post Office was able to consider that so many sub-postmasters had turned to crime.
Within the church, questions have been raised about its own relationship with corporate culture. Vennells was a member of a college appointed by the Church of England to deliver training for senior leaders.
A number of weeks ago, an summary of the program was shared on social media, with topics including “applying concepts around value creation, value destruction and resource allocation to support the ministry and mission of the Church.” It comes against a wider, long-term backdrop of tension about incorporating secular management techniques within the church.
What happens now?
The public inquiry stays underway, with Vennells as a result of give evidence later this yr. To date, only 95 convictions of sub-postmasters have been overturned, although the federal government has said that those previously convicted shall be cleared of wrongdoing and compensated under a recent law. Each shall be eligible for a compensation payment of £600,000 ($756,765). For some, it is just too late: no less than 60 died without seeing justice or compensation. Some took their very own lives.
Madeleine Davies is a senior author for the Church Times in London, where she has covered the Post Office scandal.’
