Post Office boss Nick Read to temporarily step back to focus on Horizon inquiry

Mr Read wrote in a note to staff that he would step back over the summer to prepare for the next phase of proceedings, focusing on current practices.

Post Office chief executive Nick Read giving evidence to the Business and Trade Select Committee in April (UK Parliament/PA) (PA Wire)

The Post Office chief executive Nick Read will temporarily step back from the role so that he can give his “entire attention” to the next stage of the Horizon inquiry, he has said.

Mr Read wrote in a note to staff that he and the board agreed he should step back over the summer to prepare for the next phase of proceedings, which will look at current practices at the Post Office, and begins in September.

Deputy chief executive Owen Woodley will take charge of day-to-day activities for the next seven weeks until the end of August, Mr Read said.

The note, sent on Thursday, said: “It is vitally important that we demonstrate the changes we have made and give confidence to the inquiry and the country at large that ‘nothing like this could happen again’.”

“Following a discussion with Nigel (Railton) and the Board, we have agreed that I should give my entire attention to the task of preparing the business for Phase 7.”

More than 700 subpostmasters were prosecuted by the Post Office and handed criminal convictions between 1999 and 2015 as Fujitsu’s faulty Horizon IT system made it appear as though money was missing at their branches.

Mr Read succeeded former boss Paula Vennells, who this year forfeited her CBE following public anger over her handling of the Horizon crisis.

Ms Vennells testified to the inquiry over three days in May, in a sometimes tearful set of evidence sessions about her conduct in connection with the scandal.

Mr Read’s decision to temporarily step back from the CEO role comes amid a year dominated by the fallout from the Horizon scandal.

In February, the business and trade committee of MPs expressed a lack of confidence in his leadership, accusing him of giving misleading evidence.

Mr Read also denied a claim made by former chair of the Post Office Henry Staunton that he had tried to resign because of pay.

He was also “exonerated of all misconduct allegations” following a report into his behaviour earlier this year.

The external report, which the Post Office has not released, was said by Mr Staunton to contain allegations about Mr Read’s “conduct and lack of his management of the many governance and compliance issues”.

The Post Office said at the time that the review cleared him of any misconduct claims, and that he had the full backing of the board to continue to lead the business.