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

A ‘closed, defensive culture’ at the Post Office was a factor in the Horizon IT scandal, the inquiry was told. Photograph: Neil Hall/EPA

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.