Paula Vennells Accused Of 'Keeping A Lid' On Post Office Scandal

Transcript

00:00You really had earned your keep on that one, hadn't you?

00:05You kept the lid on it.

00:08There was always, with the post office, and it was the same for the Royal Mail,

00:14the challenge of managing potential misinterpretation in the media of facts

00:21that were not necessarily always understood.

00:24And this, as Chief Executive, part of your role

00:28is to protect the reputation of the post office, as it is for the Board and the Chairman.

00:33There would have been no misinterpretation in the media

00:36because the media's instincts were entirely correct.

00:40You knew of the existence of bugs, errors and defects.

00:45And you'd already kept those out, hadn't you?

00:48Because they don't appear in the prospectus.

00:51I had no work, Mr Henry, on the prospectus at all.

00:55No involvement with it until this very last minute intervention.

00:58You knew that there was a risk of civil claims for wrongful prosecutions

01:02and civil actions based on such bugs.

01:05You were aware of that.

01:0716th of July, Board meeting.

01:11Correct?

01:12Yes, yes.

01:13You knew that the Royal Mail Group was responsible for the legacy of those prosecutions

01:17together with the post office.

01:21You really had earned your keep on that one, hadn't you?

01:27You kept the lid on it.

01:30That was not at all what I was doing.

01:33I had no reflection in relation to that whatsoever.

01:38Contain negative press, protect the business, hide horizon issues.

01:50That's the truth, isn't it?

01:54No, Mr Henry, that isn't the truth.

01:56I never, as I said earlier, if there were difficult issues that needed to be addressed,

02:03that was what I tried to do.