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London, United Kingdom
The United Kingdom government, on Saturday (Jan 27), said that the Post Office chairman Henry Staunton has been dismissed as the state-owned entity reels from the decades-long Horizon IT scandal, often described as the most widespread miscarriage of justice in the country’s history.
What happened?
UK’s Business Secretary Kemi Badenoch told Staunton that he will be replaced over the weekend, according to British media reports. The business secretary and post office chairman have “agreed to part ways with mutual consent,” said a government spokesperson, in a statement, on Saturday.
“The Post Office is rightfully under a heightened level of scrutiny at this time. With that in mind, I felt there was a need for new leadership, and we have parted ways with mutual consent,” said Badenoch, in a separate statement.
WATCH | UK: PM Sunak calls Post Office's Horizon Scandal 'an appaling miscarriage of justice'
In the meantime, an interim chair will be appointed and the government will launch a recruitment process for a new chair. Staunton, 75, joined the Post Office board in December 2022, following his long career in the Financial Times Stock Exchange (FTSE) boardrooms.
The Post Office chairperson’s ouster comes amid reports of tension between him and the government in recent months.
A report by Sky News citing sources said there was also a row between the government and the state-owned entity’s chief over the appointment of a new independent director.
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This comes as UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and his government, amid mounting public anger, have sought to introduce a law which would “swiftly exonerate and compensate” more than 700 post office employees who were wrongfully convicted in the Horizon scandal.
“People who worked hard to serve their communities had their lives and their reputations destroyed through absolutely no fault of their own. The victims must get justice and compensation,” Sunak said earlier this month.
About the Horizon IT scandal
The decades-long scandal, often described as the most widespread miscarriage of justice in UK history, involving thousands of branch owner-operators and hundreds of wrongful convictions has made headlines once again after a recently aired ITV drama Mr Bates vs The Post Office, about the scandal.
Between 1999 and 2015, the Post Office prosecuted hundreds of sub-postmasters and sub-postmistresses based on the information from a recently installed IT system for alleged theft, fraud and false accounting.
ALSO READ | Explained | What is the Horizon IT scandal that might cost ex-UK post office chief her royal honour?
It was not until 2019 that the Horizon IT system, developed by a Japanese company named Fujitsu, was found to be at fault. However, the damage was done, as hundreds of sub-postmasters were given criminal convictions based on faulty accounting software.
A 2021 ruling then paved the way for compensation to the victims affected by the scandal. Meanwhile, the Japanese company, Fujitsu, last week said it would work with the British government on “appropriate actions” including compensation.
(With inputs from agencies)