The former chair of a Whitehall agency responsible for taxpayers’ interest in the Post Office has blamed the Horizon IT scandal on a mixture of “i

Post Office Horizon inquiry told of ‘incomplete curiosity’ and ‘toxic culture’

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2024-07-09 19:00:08

The former chair of a Whitehall agency responsible for taxpayers’ interest in the Post Office has blamed the Horizon IT scandal on a mixture of “incomplete curiosity” and “a toxic culture” at the state-owned company.

Robert Swannell, a veteran City businessman and former Marks & Spencer chair, was speaking on Tuesday before the judge-led public inquiry investigating why post office operators were wrongly prosecuted for theft and false accounting over financial discrepancies linked to bugs within the Horizon IT system.

Between 2014 and 2021 he led the agencies that help manage the government’s stake in state-owned businesses such as the Post Office and Channel 4, first being the chair of the Shareholder Executive until 2016, before taking the same post at its successor body, UK Government Investments (UKGI).

Swannell told the Horizon inquiry that, in his view, what went wrong at the Post Office was partly down to a “closed, defensive culture” combined with incuriosity.