The Submit Workplace was a “mess” run by executives and authorities appointees who “dragged their toes” in efforts to compensate and exonerate sub-postmasters, the previous chairman has instructed the general public inquiry.
Henry Staunton, who was sacked after 14 months as chair by then enterprise secretary Kemi Badenoch in January, additionally accused the organisation of getting a “big cultural drawback” with an absence of ethnic and gender variety – and of overseeing “vindictive” investigations into two sub-postmasters who served on the corporate board.
He additionally denied allegations that he made racist and misogynistic feedback about Submit Workplace colleagues, saying he had been “deeply stung” by an inside investigation he says was used as a pretext by Ms Badenoch to take away him.
A former chairman of WH Smith and director of ITV, Mr Staunton was appointed in December 2022 after being approached by headhunters who instructed him he can be “giving one thing again” if he took the job.
Cash newest: Extreme? How UK maternity pay charges examine globally
He stated he discovered a tradition of chaos in senior administration that instantly required greater than the 2 days per week he had been instructed was required.
“The place was a multitude that required extra of my time,” he stated. His view was that executives didn’t totally settle for the findings of the Excessive Courtroom judgment that established the position of the Horizon laptop system in a whole lot of flawed prosecutions.
“My preliminary impression was that the Submit Workplace and authorities had been dragging their toes when it comes to making funds for remediation – within the first place – and within the second place I believed that there was no urge for food in any respect for exoneration,” he instructed the inquiry.
Mr Staunton stated that originally a “ridiculous” quantity of his time was taken up with requests for a pay rise from chief govt Nick Learn, who he beforehand instructed a Parliamentary inquiry was sad and threatening to resign.
In November 2022, earlier than he was formally in submit, he was requested to signal a letter to the secretary of state recommending a rise from the utmost of £788,500 to £1.125m, a “huge” enhance that Mr Staunton stated the minister was proper to reject.
He stated the setting amongst senior workers was characterised by “threat aversion and paralysis” and “a tradition of worry and fear”, partly as a result of executives feared being referred to as to offer proof to the general public inquiry.
Learn extra from Sky Information:
Mulberry rejects Mike Ashley’s takeover provide
Promoting charges on eBay scrapped in enhance to reselling
Submit Workplace scandal report sparks name for ‘quick motion’
Referring to a letter he acquired from an nameless whistleblower, that alleged a “disgusting tradition” on the Submit Workplace, Mr Staunton agreed the organisation “had an enormous drawback with tradition”.
“Ethnicity was very poorly represented. We did have an issue with ethnicity. We did have an issue with gender.”
He additionally recognised claims that Mr Learn had referred to, of these with a “public college training”, and that there was a notion of “jobs for the boys”.
Mr Staunton was additionally extremely essential of an inside investigation launched into two sub-postmasters who had been appointed to the board as non-executive administrators, alleging it was held open for months as a way of intimidating them.
Inquiry hears recording of chair’s sacking
The inquiry additionally heard particulars of Mr Staunton’s dismissal and was performed a recording of the phone name during which Ms Badenoch instructed him he was being eliminated due to “complaints which might be so critical the federal government must intervene”.
Mr Staunton instructed the inquiry that her name got here a number of hours after a journalist, understood to be Sky Information’ Mark Kleinman, rang him to inform him he was prone to be fired.
He was not instructed on that decision what the complaints had been, however the earlier month had discovered his conduct was being examined as a part of a Submit Workplace investigation primarily based initially on an 80-page criticism towards Mr Learn by the then chief individuals officer. Within the criticism, Mr Staunton was talked about solely as soon as and never by title.
The allegation towards him was that he made inappropriate feedback about gender and race at a gathering about candidates to chair the Submit Workplace remuneration committee. In his witness assertion to the inquiry, he stated: “I deny these allegations fully and really feel deeply stung by them.”
He instructed the inquiry that three former Submit Workplace colleagues – one Jewish, one Muslim and one black – had supplied letters of help in his defence to questions from the Institute of Chartered Accountants.
“All three administrators have stated they thought there was not an oz of racism in me and certainly I used to be a champion of larger variety of ethnicity and gender on the board,” he stated.
In his witness assertion, he stated particulars of the investigation and its findings towards him, which have by no means been revealed, had been leaked to the media by a authorities supply who claimed they defined why he objected to being sacked by a minister who was “black and feminine.”
“I used to be deeply aggrieved at being made a fall man for failings that I actually had been struggling to get the Submit Workplace to handle,” he stated.
“This was a report into Nick Learn, not about me, however as a result of I had taken the facet of the sub-postmasters it was weaponised towards me.”