Former Post Office boss Paula Vennells has been called upon to forfeit her CBE award by an honours committee due to the Horizon IT scandal. The scandal led to the wrongful prosecution of Post Office staff. UK Chancellor Rishi Sunak would strongly support the Forfeiture Committee if it considered the case. Mr. Sunak stated that the prime minister shares the public’s outrage on the issue. However, it remains a decision for the committee and not the government.
Paula Vennells has already apologized to Post Office staff. The Forfeiture Committee can recommend that an individual’s honors be stripped if that person has brought the system into disrepute. A petition to senior civil servant Sir Chris Wormald, the chair of the Forfeiture Committee, asking for Ms. Vennells to lose her honor has received over one million signatures. The committee can submit a recommendation for forfeiture through the prime minister to the King, the only person who can annul an honor.
Ms. Vennells received the Commander of the British Empire honor in 2019 for “services to the Post Office and to charity”. She remains “truly sorry” for the wrongful conviction of sub-postmasters and their families. Previously, Post Office managers were wrongly prosecuted for theft, fraud, and false accounting because of faulty information from the Horizon software, leading to imprisonment, bankruptcy, or death. She stepped down from the Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust when the High Court vindicated the Post Office operators in their wrongful conviction.
Mr. Sunak’s official spokesman has said that he would support the committee if it chose to review the case. The committee, comprising a Treasury solicitor and four independent members, does not give an opinion on whether an individual is guilty of acts, simply on whether the honors system has been brought into disrepute. An individual can also apply voluntarily to have their honor forfeited
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