Former Post Office Chair Regrets Keeping Critical Report Secret: Inquiry Reveals

Former Post Office chair Tim Parker has expressed regret over keeping a critical report secret that could have supported the claims of subpostmasters wrongly accused of theft and false accounting. The report, commissioned by Parker in response to accusations that flaws in the Post Office’s Horizon IT system had caused accounting errors, highlighted potential miscarriages of justice and issues with the system.

Despite the findings of the report, Parker was advised by the Post Office’s legal chief, Jane MacLeod, to keep it confidential due to legal privilege. This decision meant that the report was not shared with the board or used as evidence in a High Court case that later proved the system’s bugs were responsible for the accounting discrepancies.

Parker’s decision to follow this advice has come under scrutiny, with a letter from the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy criticizing the lack of transparency in sharing the report with the board. Parker admitted during a public inquiry that he regrets taking the advice and wishes the report had been shared more widely.

The secrecy surrounding the report continued until 2022 when a freedom of information request led to its release. MacLeod, who advised Parker on keeping the report confidential, now lives in Australia and has refused to appear as a witness before the inquiry.

The Post Office scandal, first exposed by Computer Weekly in 2009, remains one of the biggest miscarriages of justice in British history. The stories of subpostmasters, including Alan Bates, who suffered due to accounting software errors, have highlighted the need for transparency and accountability within the organization.

As the public inquiry into the Post Office scandal continues, questions remain about the handling of the Swift review and the impact it could have had on the subpostmasters affected by the Horizon IT system errors.