Compensation process has been "overly bureaucratic", said the Post Office's outgoing CEO Nick Read, expressing "deep regret" that the Post Office had not lived up to delivering "speedy and fair redress".
Read, who resigned last month, was giving evidence at the Post Office Horizon IT Inquiry for the second day, with a focus on delays to victims' financial redress when he admitted that the the government is using the company as a "shield" over compensation schemes.
Edward Henry KC, representing wronged sub-postmasters caught up in the Horizon scandal, asked Read if the government "is using the Post Office as a shield or a fire curtain".
He replied, "That could be a description, yes."
Henry continued, "The fact you're [the Post Office] administering two out of the three schemes gives the government a degree of protection… one step removed gives it room for plausible deniability?"
Read responded, "That's true."
The outgoing Post Office boss denied the company has been instructed "to minimise or suppress compensation claims whilst avoiding public scrutiny".
Read admitted, however, that the compensation process has been "overly bureaucratic" and expressed "deep regret" that the Post Office had not lived up to delivering "speedy and fair redress". However, he insisted the "approach" and way of "engaging" with victims has changed in the last few months, with "lessons learned" since the start of the year.
"I think we are genuinely open and moving towards a better system," Read told the inquiry. "There are proper appeals processes, proper independent panels now working."
He added there is a "commitment… to get this right," and said he believes "things will start to flow" despite "mistakes hav[ing] certainly been made".
Read also addressed the "terrible" fact that hundreds of sub-postmasters have died before receiving compensation. A total of 251 people have died without getting full financial redress, according to data cited at the inquiry.
Nick Read insisted "a lot of time" has been spent "trying to work out how do we improve and speed up the process", adding it was a "constant point of conversation" with the government.
Read said it was "astonishing" the Post Office was involved in the administration of compensation schemes and said the "corporate view" was that the Post Office should not have anything to do with them.
When asked why that view was not communicated to the inquiry in meetings, Read responded, "It's a good question. I'm unsure why we didn't make that very explicit…clearly we should have done."
He said the lack of communication on this was a "failure". Read also today told the inquiry how Post Office employees "implicated" in the Horizon scandal may "still be operating at the heart" of the business.
The inquiry continues.
