Ex-Post Office boss Paula Vennells returning CBE 'obviously the right decision', Downing Street says
9 January 2024, 16:58 | Updated: 9 January 2024, 19:21
Former Post Office boss Paula Vennells handing back her CBE is “obviously the right decision”, Downing Street has said.
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Asked about her decision, the Prime Minister’s official spokesman said: “We think that is obviously the right decision. “Our focus continues to be on ensuring all those whose lives were torn apart have swifter access to compensation and justice.”
On Thursday Ms Vennells has said she will hand back her CBE with immediate effect amid the fallout of the Horizon IT scandal which led to the wrongful prosecution of hundreds of sub-postmasters.
In a written statement Ms Vennells said: "I continue to support and focus on co-operating with the inquiry and expect to be giving evidence in the coming months.
"I have so far maintained my silence as I considered it inappropriate to comment publicly while the inquiry remains ongoing and before I have provided my oral evidence.
"I am, however, aware of the calls from sub-postmasters and others to return my CBE.
"I have listened and I confirm that I return my CBE with immediate effect.
"I am truly sorry for the devastation caused to the sub-postmasters and their families, whose lives were torn apart by being wrongly accused and wrongly prosecuted as a result of the Horizon system.
"I now intend to continue to focus on assisting the inquiry and will not make any further public comment until it has concluded."
It comes as ministers have been holding talks with judges, and Fujitsu has been warned it could face huge compensation bill.
The Government is considering ways to overturn the convictions, including possible legislation.
But some of the wronged subpostmasters want to have their names cleared in the courts and the Post Office held to account, rather than through legislation.
A petition calling for the ex-Post Office boss to be stripped of her CBE garnered more than one million signatures just a week after launch.
Ms Vennells was awarded the CBE in the 2019 New Year Honours List for services to the "Post Office and to charity”.But there has been mounting pressure for it to be revoked after ITV aired Mr Bates vs The Post Office, which dramatised the Horizon scandal.
Ministers are now drawing up plans to fast-track appeals for postmasters that were wrongly convicted.Kevin Hollinrake, the postal affairs minister, told the Commons that “options” had been devised to resolve outstanding criminal convictions “much more quickly”.
“We believe we have a solution,” he told MPs, with a further update expected later in the week.
Mr Hollinrake vowed to "leave no stone unturned" amid the growing pressure to quash the convictions and speed up the awarding of compensation to those affected by the IT system error.
"We have devised some options for resolving the outstanding criminal convictions with much more pace," the minister said.
"While the scale of the problem is immense, the Government is unwavering in its resolve to tackle it, to compensate those affected and to leave no stone unturned in the pursuit of justice."
