Who is Paula Vennells - the former Post Office boss due to give evidence at the Horizon IT inquiry?
Ms Vennells was the chief executive of the Post Office between 2012 in 2019 - with hundreds of innocent workers having been accused of theft and false accounting between 1999 and 2015.
Tuesday 21 May 2024 18:25, UK
The former head of the Post Office faces three full days of evidence at the Horizon IT inquiry from Wednesday.
Paula Vennells, who was chief executive of the organisation between 2012 and 2019, is being questioned under oath about her role in the Post Office scandal which unfolded under her watch.
It's the moment many of the more than 700 sub-postmasters who were wrongly accused of theft and false accounting have been waiting for - with some accusing the 65-year-old of a cover-up after it emerged employees may have been wrongly convicted.
The public inquiry is taking place as hundreds of sub-postmasters are still awaiting full compensation despite the government announcing those who have had convictions quashed are eligible for £600,000 payouts.
Here we take a look at Ms Vennells' career history and what she has said since the scandal emerged.
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Businesswoman and part-time priest
Paula Vennells joined the Post Office as group network director in 2007 having begun her business career at Unilever in 1981, later securing management positions at L'Oreal, Dixons, Argos and Whitbread.
Before that, she had grown up in Manchester and studied French and Russian at Bradford University.
Between 2002 and 2005 she trained as a Church of England deacon and was ordained as a priest in 2006. Alongside her career, she served at three churches in Bedfordshire.
Ms Vennells was promoted to Post Office chief executive in 2012 - the same year it split from Royal Mail.
During her tenure, she oversaw huge financial struggles, which forced the closure of thousands of branches nationwide and forced the service to modernise.
From 2000 the Post Office pursued criminal prosecutions against many of its staff over account shortfalls.
The sub-postmasters and mistresses involved protested their innocence from the beginning, but many were convicted and imprisoned, with their reputations left ruined.
The year in which Ms Vennells took charge of the Post Office, it bowed to mounting pressure to investigate the allegations being made about the IT system by several sub-postmasters.
It commissioned the private investigation company Second Sight to file a report, which ultimately concluded there were no widespread accounting or IT issues.
In 2017 a group of staff managed to bring their case against the Post Office to the High Court.
As it progressed, Ms Vennells faced increasing criticism, and she eventually stepped down from her role in 2019.
In the New Years Honours List at the beginning of that year, she had been given a CBE "for services to the Post Office and to charity".
She handed back her CBE earlier this year after a petition called on her to do so, with Ms Vennells saying in a statement she returned the honour after listening to "calls from sub-postmasters and others".
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'Truly sorry'
In December 2019, the High Court case concluded, with Mr Justice Fraser ruling the sub-postmasters should have their convictions quashed and that the Horizon system was to blame for the scandal.
Mr Fraser described the Post Office's evidence in the case as "institutional obstinacy".
Following the ruling, Ms Vennells said: "I am truly sorry for the suffering caused to the 39 subpostmasters as a result of their convictions which were overturned last week."
Soon after she reportedly agreed to cease her duties as an associate minister. The Bishop of St Albans, whose father was a sub-postmaster, was quoted saying it was the "right" decision.
She also stepped aside from non-executive leadership roles at Morrisons and Dunelm, according to reports.
After leaving the Post Office in 2019, Ms Vennells became chairman of Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust.
But the following year, with the Post Office appealing the High Court ruling, healthcare regulator the Care Quality Commission (CQC) expressed concerns over Ms Vennells keeping her position, and it was announced she was stepping down for personal reasons in December 2020.
Amid an increasing backlash, Conservative peer Lord Arbuthnot who led the campaign in parliament on behalf of the sub-postmasters and mistresses, said: "The hallmark of Paula Vennells' time as CEO was that she was willing to accept appalling advice from people in her management and legal teams.
"The consequences of this were far-reaching for the Post Office and devastating for the sub-postmasters. However, there seem to have been no consequences for her."
Mr Fraser's original ruling was upheld in 2021 and a statutory public inquiry into the Horizon scandal began in 2022.
The Metropolitan Police has also confirmed it is investigating the Post Office over potential fraud offences related to the scandal.