Former Post Office chief Paula Vennells steps down from corporate and Church roles

Paula Vennells, former chief executive of Post Office, has stepped down from the boards of supermarket chain Morrisons and homewares retailer Dunelm.

She was serving as a non-executive director at the companies.

While no reason has given for the decision, the move comes days after the Court of Appeal has quashed 39 convictions of sub-postmasters related to the Post Office Horizon scandal.

Vennells has also stepped back from her duties as a minister in the Church of England following the ruling.

The Bishop of St Albans said it is right for Vennells to stand back from public ministry as there are still legal processes and inquiries to take place.

“As the son of a former sub-postmaster I express my distress at the miscarriage of justice that so many sub-postmasters have suffered,” the bishop added.

Vennells said in the Church statement that she is “truly sorry” for the suffering caused to the 39 sub-postmasters as a result of their convictions.

“It is obvious that my involvement with the Post Office has become a distraction from the good work undertaken in the Diocese of St Albans and in the parishes I serve. I have therefore stepped back with immediate effect from regular parish ministry, and intend to focus fully on working with the ongoing government Inquiry to ensure the affected sub-postmasters and wider public get the answers they deserve,” she said.

Vennells has been the chief executive of the Post Office from 2012 to 2019, at a time Post Office had been locked in protracted court battles with sub-postmasters over the Horizon IT system. Shortly after her leaving the role, Post Office has abandoned its defensive position that there was nothing wrong with Horizon and reached a settlement with litigant postmasters.

The conduct of the Post Office during her period, in relation to the Horizon issues, came in for scathing criticism from the High Court, which ruled in favour of postmasters in group litigation, and recently from Court of Appeal.

At the end of March, Vennells has stepped down as the chair of the Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust citing personal reasons. However, it followed reports that Business Minister Lord Callanan has written to the Department of Health and Social Care questioning her fitness for office.

Last year, she has left the adviser roles at the Cabinet Office and Church's Ethical Investment Advisory Group.

Communication Workers Union has meanwhile demanded that Vennells be stripped of her CBE, which was awarded to her for services to the Post Office in 2019, and the launch of a criminal investigation.

“Acknowledgement must be made of the aggressive, brutal manner in which former Post Office CEO Paula Vennells allowed these loyal postmasters to be pursued though the courts,” Andy Furey, national officer for postmasters in the CWU, said.

“She oversaw a culture of vilification and demonisation of her own key workers and contributed to people’s lives being ruined. Mealy-mouthed apologies from Post Office spin doctors simply won’t make that better.”