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Post Office chief executive Nick Read has resigned following a five-year stint overshadowed by the fallout from one of the UK’s most serious miscarriages of justice, with hundreds of staff wrongfully convicted because of IT problems that the organisation denied.
The state-owned group said on Wednesday that Read, who was made chief executive in September 2019, had decided to step down in March next year. He will be replaced by interim chief operating officer Neil Brocklehurst before a permanent appointment is made.
Read has been questioned several times during the public inquiry into the scandal, in which more than 900 sub-postmasters were convicted based on faulty data from the Post Office’s Horizon IT system.
A group of more than 500 sub-postmasters took legal action against the Post Office, winning a settlement in 2019 and opening the way for a ruling in 2021 that resulted in some sub-postmasters having their convictions overturned.
The scandal was brought to wider public attention by an ITV drama series this year that triggered an outcry and resulted in legislation to exonerate victims en-masse.
Although the scandal began before Read took charge, he has been repeatedly criticised for how he has handled it and also for accepting bonuses while sub postmasters, many of whom faced serious financial difficulties because of the Post Office, struggled to get compensation.
Read, a former boss of the supermarket chain Nisa, was last year forced to repay some of his £455,000 bonus from 2021-22 after the group was accused of misleading the public inquiry.
Earlier this year, the former chair of the Post Office, Henry Staunton, accused Read of bullying the business’s former human resources director. An external investigation cleared Read of all misconduct allegations.
Sir Alan Bates, lead campaigner for the sub postmaster victims, told the Financial Times that Read was “jumping ship” before the public inquiry had published its final findings.
Richard Trinder, chair of the campaign group Voice of the Postmaster, said Read’s departure would help the business move on. “We need to draw a line in the sand,” he said.
The Post Office said Read would continue to give evidence to the public inquiry.
Read said: “It has been a great privilege to work with colleagues and postmasters during the past five years in what has been an extraordinarily challenging time.”
This article has been corrected to say that Nick Read did a five-year, rather than four-year, stint as Post Office chief executive.