Paula Vennells: key disclosures from first day at Post Office Horizon inquiry

Paula Vennells claimed she did not know the Post Office was prosecuting staff until 2012. Photograph: Post Office Horizon IT Inquiry/PA

Ten years after making her last public comments, Paula Vennells, who joined the Post Office in 2007 and held the position of chief executive between 2012 and 2019, has given evidence at a public inquiry looking to provide justice to the thousands of people whose lives were ruined in the Horizon scandal. Between 1999 and 2015, hundreds of Post Office branch operators were prosecuted on the basis of the faulty accounting software, and thousands more were bankrupted or forced to pay back money.

Vennells said she did not know of IT faults and was ‘too trusting’ of subordinates