The leading lawyer at the Post Office has been summoned to appear before the statutory inquiry into the Horizon IT scandal. The inquiry said general counsel Ben Foat will appear before chair Sir Wyn Williams in an urgent evidence session on 4 July.

The Post Office was asked to provide a witness statement after relevant documents listing the racial identification codes for postmasters were reported on in the media last month before they were disclosed to the inquiry.

Documents had been put into the public domain by Post Office Limited in response to a freedom of information request and contained information about the Post Office’s guidance for investigators.

The inquiry said Foat, who has been with the Post Office for almost eight years and group general counsel for three, will be questioned on the process by which his employer responded to the inquiry’s relevant prior requests for evidence.

His evidence session will take place before the first witness gives evidence as part of phase four of the inquiry, looking in detail at the legal processes which caused hundreds of postmasters to be falsely accused of theft and fraud based on the faulty Horizon IT system. The inquiry said the substance of the underlying document disclosed last month will be relevant to phase four proceedings.

Through next month, the inquiry will hear evidence on action against the postmasters and the policies and practices that guided the prosecutions. Witnesses will include solicitors who acted for Post Office Limited as well as prosecution expert witnesses.

Meanwhile, the current chief executive of Post Office, Nick Read, has told MPs there is ‘no cap’ on the compensation that falsely accused individuals may seek.

Appearing before the House of Commons business select committee on Tuesday, Read was pressed on whether the quantum of compensation packages being offered was fair, given that many lost their homes, livelihoods and future earning opportunities.

Read said he was ‘very clear’ there was no upper limit on what people could claim, and he stressed that awards were decided by an independent panel.

He declined to state whether packages were fair, instead saying that his objective was to ensure fairness and that compensation was being handled ‘in the right way’.

Offers have been made to 2,402 individuals through the historical shortfall scheme, of which 82% have accepted. 

Post Office has identified a total of 700 convictions in cases it prosecuted between 1999 and 2015 in which Horizon evidence might have featured. Of this 700, 131 cases have been through the appeals process and there have been 83 convictions overturned and 48 unsuccessful appeals.

In excess of 500 people (of the total 700) have not yet sought to appeal. Many of them have not responded at all to Post Office following multiple communications. 

Read, who told the committee he received £870,000 through salary and bonuses in 2021/22, apologised to the committee after it emerged that executives were wrongly paid bonuses for completing work on the inquiry. The Post Office annual report incorrectly said the inquiry chair had approved the payments, and MPs said all inquiry-related bonuses paid to 34 managers should be returned.

Committee chair Darren Jones asked: ‘Many of the victims of the scandal will be looking today and hearing your apologies and saying they weren’t allowed to apologise for something that turned out to not be their fault, what are the consequences for any of you?’

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