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Post Office inquiry live: Paula Vennells denies shielding board from 'dirty laundry' - BBC News Paula Vennells denies shielding board from 'dirty laundry' - BBC News
(32 minutes later)
It's been a heavy, technical afternoon at the Post Office inquiry as Jason Beer KC grilled Paula Vennells for the second day. Sam Hancock
Here's a look back at what was said: Reporting from the inquiry
Vennells denied trying to offer only a "meagre sum and apology" to sub-postmasters without investigating the cause of their problems It may have started slowly but by the end, day two of Paula Vennells' evidence to the inquiry revealed an awful lot.
She apologised for her decision to call the Horizon issues "exceptions" or "anomalies", saying they should have been called 'bugs' Emails showed the former Post Office CEO suggested all the way back in 2013 that sub-postmaster convictions going back 10 years could be scrutinised - but on the advice of her media chief, they weren't.
She also rejected that the company's executive team, which she led, shielded the board from "dirty laundry" - instead saying that she felt "very strongly" about the board being able to challenge her In the room today, she acknowledged that was the wrong call.
Vennells also denied that concerns from her media adviser about negative news coverage influenced her decision on whether to review five to 10 years' worth of past prosecutions We also heard about a Post Office board meeting in 2013, where minutes showed that executives had grown "concerned that the review opened the business up to claims of wrongful prosecution".
She said she did not try to close down a review into the Horizon software that led to wrongful convictions of sub-postmasters Vennells' insistence that she couldn't recall that being discussed in the meeting was met with loud groans and even laughter from those watching on - not an uncommon occurrence over the past two days.
This week is the first time Vennells has publicly spoken about her role in the scandal for nearly a decade. Compensation was the last theme of the day to be explored. A document from February 2014, which said Vennells felt sums calculated by Second Sight - up to £50m - were "a long way from the figures... in mind when the scheme was established".
She will be back at the inquiry for one more day tomorrow. She insisted it wasn't the case that the Post Office didn't want to pay out, and ignored scoffs from onlookers as she did so.
We'll be back tomorrow for Vennells' third and final day of evidence-giving.
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