The Post Office’s head of legal services has apologised to the Horizon IT scandal inquiry after a document which used racist terms to describe wrongly convicted subpostmasters was circulated among staff as recently as 2019.
Group general counsel for Post Office Limited (POL), Ben Foat, told the inquiry lawyers have since identified 23 occasions the “unacceptable” document was sent among POL’s security team between 2012 and May 2019.
Counsel to the inquiry, Jason Beer KC, described the surfacing of the document, in which some subpostmasters (SPMs) were referred to as “negroid types”, as “a scandal, within a scandal, within a scandal”.
The document was a guide for fraud investigators, who were asked to group suspects based on racial features for staff from the colonial era of the 1800s which refers to people of African descent.
I recognise the racist and unacceptable language that is contained within that document and for which I can only apologise— POL group general counsel Ben Foat
Before the hearing, the inquiry’s chairman, Sir Wyn Williams, announced he would be producing an interim report “before Parliament rises on July 20” regarding compensation for those wrongly convicted in the Horizon IT scandal.
Between 2000 and 2014, more than 700 SPMs were prosecuted based on information from the accounting system, which saw workers wrongly accused of theft, fraud and false accounting.
However, in December 2019 a High Court judge ruled that the system contained a number of “bugs, errors and defects” and there was a “material risk” that shortfalls in Post Office branch accounts were in fact caused by it.
Since then many SPMs have had criminal convictions overturned.
During Tuesday’s hearing, Mr Foat said the document which used racist language was not identified as relevant when the inquiry requested documents in February and August last year, and was therefore not disclosed.
The guide was instead disclosed to SPM supporter Eleanor Shaikh following a Freedom of Information (FOI) request earlier this year.
Mr Foat added that he recognised “that there are a number of areas where we have fallen short” in terms of disclosure.
The witness was taken through emails from 2011, 2012, 2016 and 2019 in which the document had been attached and sent between members of POL’s security team.
Addressing the identification codes guide, Mr Beer said to Mr Foat: “One of the things POL has said in response to this part of a scandal within a scandal, within a scandal is these are outdated documents – they are in the past.
“But as you pick away at this, you might find that by looking at the emails, in fact they were in circulation until quite recently, might we? If we get the emails.”
Mr Foat responded: “My understanding is that they are historic in nature.
“They must necessarily be so because the Post Office stopped prosecuting and has not prosecuted and that policy came in in 2019.
“I recognise the racist and unacceptable language that is contained within that document and for which I can only apologise to see that.
“That is certainly not consistent with my values, nor the current Post Office.
“I accept that is a document that clearly was in existence at that time.”
Referring to an example from 2011 in which the document was attached to an email about compliance guidance, Mr Beer interjected: “It wasn’t just in existence was it? It was being circulated and saying you must comply with its terms and if you don’t you will be picked up for non-compliance.”
Mr Foat replied: “In 2011 that appears to be the case.”
After the FOI disclosure was made, the POL said in a statement that it was a “historic document” but said the organisation did not tolerate racism “in any shape or form” and condemned the “abhorrent” language.
