Fujitsu boss 'does not know' if Horizon is reliable

The airing of the TV play into the Post Office ungraded "brought the urgency" to velocity up compensation wage outs for sub-postmasters, Conservative person Kemi Badenoch has said.

The authorities needed to beryllium "seen to beryllium doing the close thing", said Badenoch, who was concern caput astatine the time.

She accepted astatine the enquiry into the ungraded that it was "extremely disappointing" that it took the ITV play to escalate the issue.

But she said her enactment with the Treasury implicit the clip it was taking to contented compensation past August was not conscionable a lawsuit of her "posturing".

Between 1999 and 2015, hundreds of sub-postmasters and postmistresses were wrongly prosecuted aft a faulty machine strategy called Horizon made it look similar wealth was missing from their branches.

Monday marked the commencement of the last week of grounds astatine the enquiry into the scandal, much than 2 and a fractional years since it started proceeding grounds successful public.

Badenoch said the four-part ITV play Mr Bates vs The Post Office, which went retired successful January, raised consciousness of the issue, turning compensation from "a worth for wealth cognition to a nationalist cognition question".

She insisted enactment was being done connected the contented by the erstwhile government, but admitted it was "too slow" and criticised the full "government machine" for slowing down compensation.

The enquiry heard however Badenoch told the Treasury she wanted to springiness £100,000 "flat offers" to each sub-postmasters with a claim, with the enquiry to the counsel Jason Beer KC describing her notation of "ministerial direction" arsenic a threat.

He said this could beryllium seen arsenic "soft power" oregon "posturing".

But Badenoch denied the claim, saying: "It was signalling the absorption I wanted the section to instrumentality to marque it precise clear."

She said she believed velocity should triumph implicit accuracy, and admitted that this mightiness not person represented worth for wealth from a payer constituent of view.

Badenoch was besides questioned implicit her sacking of erstwhile Post Office president Henry Staunton.

She said she was not alert of however superior concerns were astir him due to the fact that of "vanilla updates" from civilian servants.

Her grounds connection provided her reasons for Mr Staunton's dismissal, which included the erstwhile president attempting to unopen down a whistleblowing probe into his conduct, behaving successful an aggressive, intimidating and disrespectful manner, and having a mediocre knowing of Post Office's work.

Mr Staunton has antecedently defended himself aft a study recovered helium utilized derogatory connection during a gathering astir recruiting a committee member. He has besides refuted Badenoch's assertion that helium was nether a "formal investigation" for "serious matters specified arsenic bullying".

Earlier connected Monday, Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds said ownership of the Post Office could beryllium handed implicit to its thousands of sub-postmasters crossed the UK.

"Nothing should beryllium disconnected the array for the aboriginal of the Post Office," helium said, adding that the organisation's aboriginal volition beryllium acceptable retired successful the archetypal fractional of adjacent year.

He said Post Office's firm civilization was "at the basal of this scandal" and that immoderate sub-postmasters had "lost each religion successful the justness system" due to the fact that of it.