Blind faith in technology - Case Study The Post Office

In a characteristically thorough piece of journalism, in the last edition of Weekend FT (12 September 2020), the appalling story of the the wholly unjustified vilification of sub-postmasters in the UK Post Office was fully exposed. Because the senior management team at Post Office blindly accepted everything their seriously flawed IT system told them, the lives of hundreds of men and women were completely ruined.

Despite repeated denials of guilt, and desperate pleas for detailed investigations to be made, Post Office managers acted as the victim of an alleged crime, the investigators of the allegations and also jury and judge. A number of sub postmasters went to prison and others were made bankrupt. This went on for a period of well in excess of a decade. At no point did the senior team - lead by Paula Vennells - stop to wonder if criminalising swathes of their own staff might actually be down to the systems and processes employed by the business. The complacency, and the consequences of that unquestioning belief in the IT system, were truly shocking.

The ruling handed down by the Judge regarding this case - which runs to 400 pages - is a searing and scathing admonishment of the senior management at Post Office. The case has been referred to as one of the most gross miscarriages of justice in British corporate history. Ms Vennells - also an Anglican priest - stood down as CEO from Post Office before assuming the chair of Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust in London. Fiona Cowan wasn't quite so lucky - because of the false allegations and stress, she died in 2009 of an overdose of anti-depressants.