Lord Foulkes of Cumnock
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Lord Foulkes of Cumnock Excerpts(10 months, 3 weeks ago)
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Lord Offord of Garvel (Con)
The chairman who is just leaving was not the chairman pre-2015 and he is not receiving any compensation.
Lord Foulkes of Cumnock (Lab Co-op)
My Lords, I am perplexed: the Statement said that the chairman left by mutual agreement, the Minister spoke earlier about his resignation, but the Secretary of State made it clear that she sacked him. Which was it? Henry Staunton was appointed by a Conservative Secretary of State, so presumably that was a mistake, for which the Minister is apologising. How can the Government make sure that, when they appoint a new chairman, they will not make the same mistake again?
Lord Offord of Garvel (Con)
I thank the noble Lord for that. A key part of making these appointments is to make sure that we have the right people, in the right place, and the right leadership. In this case, we agreed to part company by mutual consent. The point is that there are issues with the governance of the Post Office beyond Horizon. There needs to be further reform of the Post Office and we have to start with the chairman to move that forward.