Paula Vennells: Former Post Office chief executive formally stripped of CBE
Paula Vennells, the former chief executive of the Post Office, has had her CBE formally stripped from her by the King for “bringing the honours system into disrepute”.
Ms Vennells received the honour in 2019 but was widely criticised amid the fallout from the Post Office scandal.
She ran the organisation while it routinely denied there was a problem with its Horizon IT software system, and had said last month she would give up the honour.
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The action was announced on the Cabinet Office website, which also revealed that grime artist Wiley – real name Richard Cowie – has had his MBE stripped for “bringing the honours system into disrepute” as well.
He said in 2020 that he would hand back his honour after posting antisemitic comments on social media in which he described Jewish people as “cowards and snakes”, and also compared Jews to the Ku Klux Klan.
And he has also previously been subject to a police wanted appeal over charges of burglary and assault by beating.
Ms Vennells was portrayed by an actor in the ITV drama, Mr Bates Vs The Post Office, which brought the scandal to the wider attention of the public earlier this year.
More than 700 sub-postmasters and mistresses had their reputations ruined by allegations of theft and false accounting, with many left bankrupt or in prison, as a result of the Horizon computer system.
Between 1999 and 2015, many people who ran branches were found guilty, and despite years of campaigning, only a small number of them had their convictions quashed.
The government has since pledged to exonerate those who were wrongly convicted.
In 2022, a statutory public inquiry began into what has been described as the “worst miscarriage of justice in recent British legal history”, with hearings still under way.
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Ms Vennells was chief executive of the Post Office between 2012 and 2019, and was given her honour after leaving the role “for services to the Post Office and to charity”.
She started at the company in 2007 as a group director, having previously worked in business but also training as a Church of England deacon.
When she took over as chief executive, she bowed to pressure to begin investigating alleged issues with the Post Office’s IT system, in use since 1999.
A privately commissioned report found no widespread accounting or IT issues.
But by 2017, a group of Post Office staff had brought their case to the High Court – and Ms Vennells came under increasing criticism.
In December 2019 the case concluded, and Mr Justice Fraser ruled the sub-postmasters should have their convictions quashed and that the Horizon system was to blame for the scandal.
Mr Fraser described the Post Office’s evidence in the case as “institutional obstinacy”.
Following the ruling, Ms Vennells said: “I am truly sorry for the suffering caused to the 39 subpostmasters as a result of their convictions which were overturned.”
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Lord Arbuthnot, a Conservative peer who championed the sub-postmasters’ cause, said: “The hallmark of Paula Vennells’ time as CEO was that she was willing to accept appalling advice from people in her management and legal teams.
“The consequences of this were far-reaching for the Post Office and devastating for the sub-postmasters. However, there seem to have been no consequences for her.”