The former postmaster general told the public inquiry he had no interest in exempting state-run post office operators, claiming the government and the government had “dragged their feet” in paying compensation.
Henry Stanton, who was sacked by former Business Secretary Kemi Badenoch in January, said his first impression when he took up the role in late 2022 was that the conclusions were not accepted among management. spoke. terrible high court judgment He argued that the Postal Service made a mistake in pursuing prosecution.
“They didn't fully accept it. That's my impression, that somehow the incident was not handled well,” Stanton said at Tuesday's inquiry into the Horizon IT scandal. ” he said. “There was no sense that this was absolutely wrong, but [what] It was happening. It was felt throughout the team. ”
Mr Stanton accused the previous government of wanting to delay payments to post office operators until after the general election, and his second point when he began speaking was that he had “no desire to plead not guilty”. He said it was true. Those two things really resonated with me. ”
He also said it was clear from the first meeting that Horizon IT systems were “completely and totally unreliable.” Stanton said the Postal Service's investigative division's response to postal service operators has been “strong” and “very brutal.”
Stanton said he was shocked by the attitude of the redress process, which aims to assess and compensate those who have been charged.
He cited examples such as the reluctance of branch owner-managers to “suspend” their repayment obligations while they are assessed under the scheme, which could lead to more people coming forward seeking redress. said.
“What struck me is that you shouldn't do something because you might get a claim,” he said. “That is not the basis for a restoration commission to work on. I have spent several months forming a view of bureaucracy and an unsympathetic and adversarial approach.”
A similar attitude was adopted when discussing the expansion of the system for the death of family members of postal workers.
“The idea was that if we broadened the principles, more claims would be accepted,” he said. “That seemed pretty unkind to me. The government and the Post Office were on the back foot when it came to relief.”
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Stanton said one postal service executive said the organization does not owe postal service operators the same duty of care as it does to its own employees.
“We owe them a greater duty of care than we would our own employees because they've been through everything,” he said.
In May, the government passed unprecedented legislation that would allow executives of more than 900 companies to have their convictions overturned after they were wrongly prosecuted.
