Post Office executives "will be on tenterhooks" as the long-running public inquiry into the Horizon IT scandal reopened this week, said Mark Sweney in The Observer. Following an already devastating "litany" of cover-ups and management screw-ups, the last phase of the probe, chaired by High Court judge Sir Wyn Williams, "will hear whether lessons have been learnt" by examining the Post Office's "current state and culture".
Embattled CEO Nick Read, who replaced Paula Vennells in 2019 before becoming "embroiled in a reputational crisis of his own", has resigned ahead of his appearance. Read had "temporarily stepped back" over the summer so he could, he said, give the inquiry his "entire attention". In March, he was "exonerated" after a separate investigation into bullying.
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