Post Office Scandal: Former Business Secretary Sir Vince Cable accepts ‘share’ of responsibility | Business News

Sir Vince Cable told the Post Office inquiry that he accepts a “sharing” of responsibility for the failings that allowed the wrongful convictions of sub-postmasters to continue unchecked.

The former Liberal Democrat leader, who served as business secretary for five years from 2010 to 2015, said there was “clearly a policy failure” under his watch regarding oversight of Mail.

This is despite Sir Vince admitting that he was already aware of “arrogant” management due to previous negotiations with the company about branch closures in his capacity as deputy.

He agreed with the description of the executives, put forward by Horizon IT scandal campaigner Sir Alan Bates, who likened them to “thugs in suits”.

But under questioning from investigating lawyer Jason Beer KC, he joined other ministers at the time in their respective evidence, insisting he was told by department officials not to interfere in Post Office operational matters.

Sir Vince told the inquiry he had “no idea” that the Post Office was secretly prosecuting sub-postmasters during his time as Secretary of State and declared that problems with Horizon “barely reached my desk”.

“When they did,” he added, “it was usually in a very uncontroversial way.”

More than 700 subpostmasters were wrongfully convicted of charges including theft and false accounting between 1999 and 2015 related to the use of Horizon accounting systems, provided by Fujitsu, in their branches.

Although all were cleared, many are still awaiting compensation.

Research is examining many facets of behavior throughout Horizon’s lifecycle to date.

A central theme is that of cover-ups, especially at the Post Office itself.

In his testimony to the inquiry, Sir Vince said: “These abuses have occurred under a large number of ministers in Labour, Coalition and Conservative governments and we all share some responsibility for the fact that this happened on our watch.

“I accept my part in this responsibility and apologize to the victims for having been so seriously let down.

“I must add that whilst the focus of the inquiry is quite properly on the sub-postmasters and the harm they have suffered, the dishonesty of Post Office staff has also undermined confidence in official advice, without which the government cannot function properly.”

See more information:
Around 100 sub-postmaster convictions may be ‘tainted’
Review requested in another Correios IT system

In his statement on Thursday, he added: “To be frank, I found it very difficult to identify specific events or decisions that I could have made differently – but simply, as a matter of formal responsibility, this was a state-owned company that came inside is under the responsibility of my department and I accept the fact that this happened under our supervision.

“I know this is a cliché, but it is something that ministers have to recognize.”

Beer asked, “When you say you accept your share of responsibility, what are you accepting responsibility for?”

Sir Vince responded: “General oversight of the department and this was an area of ​​the department where, clearly, there was a policy failure.”