Post Office Ltd: Management Culture

Margaret Ferrier Excerpts

Thursday 13th July 2023 Westminster Hall

[Margaret Ferrier (Rutherglen and Hamilton West) (Ind)]

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Sir George, and I congratulate the hon. Member for Motherwell and Wishaw (Marion Fellows) and the Backbench Business Committee on securing this debate.

I start by paying tribute to the work that the Under-Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, the hon. Member for Sutton and Cheam (Paul Scully), did when he was the Minister responsible for this issue, and I am sure that the Minister here, the Under-Secretary of State for Business and Trade, the hon. Member for Thirsk and Malton (Kevin Hollinrake), feels as strongly about this subject.

Respect in the workplace should be the bare minimum that every worker receives; it should be a given. People work to make a living, pay their bills, and provide for themselves and their family. The majority of workers are assets to their company, and as a collective, their work makes it possible for companies to turn profits—sometimes huge profits that can pay out huge bonuses for executive shareholders, who are a very select few at the top of an organisation. Workers’ contribution should earn them respect, and inspire appreciation for them from those at the very top of an organisation, who are responsible for fostering an inclusive and welcoming working culture. Unfortunately and unacceptably, in many workplaces, that does not happen. We know that it did not happen at Post Office Ltd.

It is difficult to know where to start with the Post Office scandal. Today, we are focusing on the management culture, which is one of those issues that profoundly impacts every aspect of an organisation, and it undoubtedly played a vital role in what unfolded with the Horizon system.

I pay tribute to all of the postmasters and postmistresses who found themselves a victim of the Horizon scandal—every one of the men and women whose integrity was questioned, and who were accused of dishonesty and fraud; those who lost their job, livelihood and, in many cases, freedom; those who were isolated from their community, because they were under a black cloud of suspicion; and those who suffered the breakdown of their family unit under the strain of this long-running saga.

I pay my respects to those who ended up passing away before justice could be served or before their name was cleared, as well as to their families, including those in my constituency. I also say thank you to every former postmaster and postmistress, and those who worked with them, for their hard campaigning over the years to see this wrong recognised and addressed.

I welcome the fact that in its remaining phases, the inquiry will review some of the issues around the working culture. That is essential to understanding exactly how and why so many people found themselves in the situations that they did. However, it will mean very little if it does not prompt change. Lessons must be learned, and not only by the Post Office; this process must inform the improvement of workers’ rights across the UK.

What happened at the Post Office had devastating effects. Sub-postmasters and sub-postmistresses were left with overwhelming anxiety, depression and other long-term mental health troubles. Their vulnerability was exploited, leading to many pleading guilty to crimes they did not commit. Many were driven to financial ruin when they were expected to make good the shortfall in the accounts from their own money. Some were sadly driven to taking their own life.

We often hear that there is strength in numbers, but for the best part of two decades, that was not the case for these victims, despite so many of them experiencing issues with the Horizon system, and being adamant that these accounting errors were systematic. They were not listened to. The problems were hidden and covered up, and many did not realise that they were not alone in their difficulties until many years later. In fact, between 2000 and 2013, over 700 people were prosecuted on the back of issues with Horizon.

It is absolutely astonishing that no one bar the postmasters affected put the pieces together sooner or, crucially, acted on it. It is now clear that internal investigations by the Post Office meant that the issues were identified much earlier than it had indicated, which is mind-blowing. It means that the chief executive at the time and others were aware that it was very possible that innocent people’s lives had been destroyed for no reason. That is unforgivable. Why were apologies not immediately made? Why was the path to justice not immediately set out upon? Why did these people—human beings with lives and families—not matter enough?

Some of the most disgusting things I have read relate to the racial classifications that the Post Office used for its postmasters. At the height of the Post Office’s pursual of unsafe prosecutions against its postmasters, racial identification codes were used by its security operations team in a compliance document. The Post Office has not been able to confirm when those classifications were removed from its working practices. It is language straight out of another century, and language that we all condemn. It is language that is incredibly racially charged, ignorant and, frankly, unacceptable. It illustrates the culture at play in the Post Office at the time, and it is not an attractive picture. Racism has no place in the workplace or, indeed, our country.

The fact that the former chief executive was able to leave her role voluntarily, having been paid £500,000 a year and awarded an honour for her contribution, is a disgrace. So is the fact that senior executives received bonuses of hundreds of thousands of pounds last year, particularly as one of the metrics used to justify those payments, and judged to have been met, was compliance with the inquiry. Essentially, they got a pat on the back and a huge financial windfall for doing what the Post Office is legally obligated to do. Add that to the fact that the Government will have to pay huge sums of taxpayers’ money to bail out the Post Office as it pays the compensation owed to postmasters and postmistresses. It makes a mockery of the entire fiasco.

I am sure that more will come out of this inquiry that will continue to shock us. I am sure that every Member of this House agrees that postmasters cannot and should not wait any longer to receive the compensation that they are rightfully due. I am not sure that anything can be done to fully right the wrongs that have occurred throughout this scandal. However, we must not hear any more excuses or denials, and above all else, we must not see any repeat of such widespread and utterly avoidable injustice.