The chief executive of the Post Office, Nick Read, has said he will temporarily step back from the role so that he can give his “entire attention” to the next stage of the inquiry into the Horizon IT scandal.
He wrote in a note to staff that he and the board agreed he should step back over the summer to prepare for the seventh phase of proceedings, which will look at current practices at the Post Office and begins in September.
Owen Woodley, the deputy chief executive, would take charge of day-to-day activities until the end of August, 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 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 post office operators 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.
Read succeeded Paula Vennells, who this year forfeited her CBE following public anger over her handling of the Horizon crisis. 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.
Read’s decision to temporarily step back from the chief executive 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.
Read also denied a claim made by the former chair of the Post Office Henry Staunton that he had threatened to resign unless he was paid more. He was “exonerated of all misconduct allegations” following a report into his behaviour earlier this year.
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The external report, which the Post Office has not released, was said by Staunton to contain allegations about 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.
Last year, Read returned a bonus payment linked to the inquiry and apologised for “procedural and governance mistakes” made by the firm.
