Post Office CEO cleared of wrongdoing

Allegations about his behaviour emerged earlier this year when former Post Office chairman Henry Staunton told a House of Commons select committee that an 80-page document had been written by the company’s former human resources director under its “Speak Up” policy.

Read has been “exonerated of all the misconduct allegations” brought by a whistleblower after an investigation by an external barrister.

The Post Office criticised Staunton for revealing that Read was under investigation.

Also, during the Inquiry on Wednesday, David Miller, a former Post Office chief operations officer, said he regretted not reading a report compiled by an IT expert, which highlighted the system’s flaws.

The report found the IT system was “clearly defective”.

Miller said had he read the report, he could have “taken action to address the issues raised”.

“Knowing what I now know about Horizon and the way it was used to wrongly prosecute and bring civil claims against sub-postmasters, I very much regret not reading the expert’s report and counsel’s advice,” he told the inquiry.