The Post Office’s chief executive, Nick Read, is set to step down from the role in March, the company has said.
The embattled CEO had taken a step back from his role in July to give his ‘entire attention’ to preparing for the next stage of the Horizon IT inquiry.
He had become CEO in 2019, succeeding former boss Paula Vennells, who this year forfeited her CBE following public anger over her handling of the Horizon scandal.
The departing chief executive said in a statement it had been a ‘great privilege’ to have worked as Post Office chief executive in an ‘extraordinarily challenging time for the business and for postmasters’.
The firm, which is set to announce current interim chief operating officer Neil Brocklehurst as acting CEO, confirmed the news this morning.
Nigel Railton, the interim chair of the embattled organisation, praised Mr Read for ‘beginning the important process of cultural change’ as the Post Office continues to deal with the fallout of the Horizon scandal.
Following the announcement that he is stepping down from his role, Mr 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 for the business and for postmasters.
‘There remains much to be done for this great UK institution but the journey to reset the relationship with postmasters is well under way and our work to support justice and redress for postmasters will continue.’
His decision to step down in March next year comes during the continuing fallout from the Horizon scandal – which included MPs expressing a lack of confidence in his leadership at the business and trade committee in February.
More than 700 sub-postmasters and sub-postmistresses were wrongly prosecuted and jailed for theft, false accounting and other offences between 1999 and 2015 in cases brought by the Post Office using flawed data.
Lead campaigner and former subpostmaster Sir Alan Bates said Nick Read ‘hasn’t achieved anything’ during his time as chief executive.
Reacting to his decision to step down from the role in March next year, Sir Alan told the PA news agency: ‘Do you know, I predicted that.
‘It’s funny that because when I knew he’d taken seven weeks’ leave – in theory to prepare for the inquiry – I thought he’d taken seven weeks off to find a new job.
‘Honestly, that was my first thought.’
Asked for reflections on his five-year tenure, Sir Alan said: ‘Well, he really hasn’t achieved anything, has he?
‘He certainly hasn’t done anything for the victims in all of this. I mean, I’m lost for words.’
The former Army officer had faced calls to quit over a letter in which he said the Post Office would stand by the prosecution of more than half of the sub-postmasters convicted during the Horizon scandal.
During his tenure he also faced claims of misconduct, with the firm’s former chairman Henry Staunton accusing him of bullying and sexism.
Mr Read told staff at the firm he ‘absolutely refutes’ bullying claims and an external report later exonerated him of ‘all misconduct allegations’.
And in June this year he was forced to apologise after the Post Office published the home addresses of 555 wronged postmasters in what he called a ‘truly terrible error’.
He said he could ‘only apologise’ after the firm published a dossier of people involved in a High court action in 2019.
The document, marked ‘confidential’, included a list of names and home addresses with postcodes.
Ex-postmaster Christopher Head, tweeted a letter he sent Mr Read and Post Office chairman Nigel Railton, telling them: ‘There are many who hadn’t shared details with their own families and others who are extremely traumatised by this whole scandal even today and this has further impacted them.’
He said Mr Read replied, saying: ‘This is a truly terrible error and one for which at this stage I can only apologise.’