Badenoch: Red tape delayed payment to subpostmasters

The government let bureaucracy get in the way of redress for wronged subpostmasters, Kemi Badenoch told the inquiry into the Post Office scandal yesterday.

- ARCHIE MITCHELL

The new Tory leader said that during her time as business secretary, she and former postal affairs minister Kevin Hollinrake "wanted to get the money out there” but were constantly given reasons why they could not by officials.

In a tetchy appearance before the Horizon IT inquiry, said: “We had briefings on the issue with officials, and it was quite clear to me that we were allowing bureaucracy to get in the way of redress too much of the time. Kevin [Hollinrake] and I wanted to get the money out there, and we were always given a reason why we couldn’t.”

Explaining why she felt bureaucracy was getting in the way of redress, Ms Badenoch told the probe: “I feel that there is often too much bureaucracy in the way of getting things done, because people are worried about the process.

“They are worried about: if things go wrong, they’ll be on the hook for that. So they carry out lots of checks and balances well beyond what I think is required in order to deliver the right outcome.”