Former Post Office chief Paula Vennells to hand back CBE

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The Post Office’s former chief executive is to hand back her CBE amid growing outrage over her role in the Horizon IT scandal.

Paula Vennells said in a statement on Tuesday that she would return the honour with immediate effect. She received it in December 2018 as part of the government’s New Year honours list.

Vennells was Post Office chief executive between 2012 and 2019. She routinely denied any issues with the Horizon system.

Hundreds of sub-postmasters were wrongly prosecuted and pursued with civil claims using flawed data from Horizon between 2000 and 2014, including under Vennells’ tenure.

This is a developing story