Tom Cooper, a former official at UK Government Investments (UKGI), recently gave evidence in the ongoing public inquiry into the Post Office Horizon IT scandal.
Cooper joined UKGI, the UK government’s center of expertise on corporate finance and corporate governance, in 2017. He became UKGI’s representative on the Post Office board in March 2018, at a time when the Post Office was already embroiled in litigation with its Subpostmasters over the Horizon IT system.
Prior to joining UKGI, Cooper had a background as an accountant at KPMG and an investment banker at UBS and Deutsche Bank. [5] When he took on the Post Office role, he was informed by his predecessor, Richard Callard, that “no systematic errors [with Horizon] had been found” and there was “no smoking gun in relation to the system.”
However, Cooper soon realized the gravity of the situation facing the Post Office. After gaining access to legal documents, he recognized that the Post Office’s contractual terms, which made Subpostmasters liable for all losses even if they were not at fault, were “completely unfair… unethical and… undermined the basis of the partnership between Postmasters and the company.”
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Despite his position on the Post Office board, Cooper felt unable to demand that the organization change direction, as the legal team was “completely intractable” and he could not garner support from his fellow board members. Instead, he focused on pushing the Post Office to consider contingency planning in case it lost the litigation, questioning whether branches could remain open and what would happen to Subpostmasters who had been criminally convicted based on Horizon evidence.
Cooper’s testimony has shed light on the challenges he faced in trying to steer the Post Office towards a more ethical and responsible course of action during the Horizon IT scandal. His evidence highlights the difficulties in effecting change within an organization that was seemingly resistant to acknowledging its mistakes and the harm caused to Subpostmasters.