Post Office Inquiry: Week 3 – Recap

The Post Office inquiry resumed on 23 September for its seventh and final phase. Here is a summary of who gave evidence during week 3.

Tuesday 7 October

Karen McEwan – Group Chief People Officer of Post Office Ltd (POL)

Karen McEwan has been the Chief People Officer at the Post Office since 2023. She is responsible for the HR team, recruitment, on-boarding and the Post Office’s ‘people’ plan. This plan aims to ensure that the Post Office is a great place to work for all employees by addressing systemic cultural issues within the organisation.

Her responsibility includes those employed directly by Post Office but, strangely, not Subpostmasters and mistresses (SPMs). She explained that, instead, she expected they would indirectly benefit from the cultural change she was helping to bring about. Sir Wyn Williams (the Chair of the Inquiry) asked her if it would be better if SPMs came within the remit of the Chief People Officer, which she said she “wholeheartedly” agreed with.

Nigel Railton – Interim Chair of POL

Nigel Railton is the current interim chair of POL (after Nick Read resigned in September 2024). Mr Railton has asked Teneo (a Corporate Consulting, Strategy & Advisory Firm) to undertake a ‘Strategic Review’ of POL, in the hopes of building better relationships with SPMs and to improve the lack of accountability and trust.

Wednesday 9 October – Friday 11 October

Nick Read – Chief Executive of POL

Nick Read joined POL as Chief Executive Officer in September 2019. Prior to this, he had been the Group CEO at ExtraEnergie and separately CEO at Nisa Retail Limited before this. As noted above, Nick Read resigned back in September 2024, and is due to leave POL in March 2025.

During the course of the Inquiry so far, a key question that was raised about Mr Read, was in relation to his pay, as we were taken to various correspondence which seemed to suggest that this was a real concern to both him and others over the last couple of years. Henry Staunton’s evidence on 1 October seemed to suggest that there were fears that Mr Read would leave POL, if he wasn’t remunerated properly and so a pay rise was sought by Mr Staunton on behalf of Mr Read.

Mr Read accepted that this ‘looks very poor in light of the victims who are still waiting for their compensation and I very much regret the furore that has exploded and as a consequence of that has been a distraction for everybody’.

Further, he was asked about allegations that he referred to people as ‘untouchables’. This was apparently in relation to 40 employees at POL who Mr Read apparently believed to be above the law. This is a word he denies ever using. He also stated that where allegations were made against current POL employees in relation to past misconduct, they would be investigated.

Mr Read only has around 5 more months left at the Post Office, but made commitments during his evidence for various matters to be deal with, including: working on shortfalls with SPMs and making sure they know that they can engage with POL on any unexplainable discrepancies/losses, setting up a scheme to assist family members who have been affected by POL, and to aim to provide full and fair compensation to SPMs.

The Crime Team at Hodge Jones & Allen have the privilege of representing a number of SPM’s as Core Participants in the Post Office Horizon IT Inquiry. The Civil Liberties & Human Rights Team and Dispute Resolution Team also represent SPM’s in respect of compensation claims. If you, or anyone you know, is a victim of the Post Office Scandal please call us now on 0808 278 8389 or email our legal experts at postofficeclaims@hja.net.