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One free scan finds every outdated or missing driver and matches the right update for your exact hardware.Free scan · exact hardware matchIn May 2024, a group of anonymous Post Office employees sent a letter to MPs, the Post Office’s interim chair, the chair of the statutory public inquiry and its lead lawyers. The letter accused chief executive Nick Read of presiding over an “ongoing cover-up” and asked for an investigation. The allegations were reported by Computer Weekly on 6 October 2024 after the letter was revealed during an inquiry hearing. They are the authors’ claims, and the reporting does not establish that they were investigated or upheld.
What the letter alleged
The authors described themselves as “highly disenfranchised Post Office employees” who represented people at several levels of the organisation. They asked for intervention and an investigation into what they called “ongoing intolerable leadership and cover up within the Post Office.” Their complaints fell into three groups:
- Withheld survey results. A staff and subpostmaster survey, they said, showed significant declines in organisational culture and in trust between senior leaders and the rest of the business. The authors said they had been shown only redacted results, had been refused the full results despite asking, and had not received the verbatim feedback.
- Favouritism toward an “inner circle.” They alleged that senior employees close to Read received preferential treatment, including paid time off and expensive legal help for evidence to the inquiry. The letter described managers being “favoured and protected” for that reason.
- Conflicts of interest. They said people in long-term roles had some involvement in the wrongful prosecutions of subpostmasters. They put the number of such people at about 120 and said Read had not dealt with the situation proactively.
The letter’s wording is worth reading in full, because the authors chose strong language. Computer Weekly quoted them as saying they were “sick and tired of being lied to and watching certain managers being favoured and protected, because they are part of the inner circle of Nick Read.” They also wrote: “This ongoing cover-up is unacceptable particularly in the light of the public inquiry and the expectation that things are changing for the better.”
Why the authors chose anonymity
The authors said they wished to stay anonymous because they did not believe the current leadership would protect them. They feared that raising concerns would be seen as a personal challenge to Read, followed by “a dogged campaign to tarnish and remove us from the organisation.” They wrote that they had seen this happen to others.
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That is the authors’ stated reason. The reporting does not independently verify that anyone has been retaliated against, and readers should treat the fear of retaliation as a claim about the organisation’s culture rather than a documented case.
The figure of about 120
The number is the most quoted detail, so it needs a precise description. The letter’s estimate of roughly 120 people refers to individuals in long-term roles who had varying degrees of involvement in wrongful prosecutions of subpostmasters. It is the authors’ estimate. Computer Weekly did not present it as a count checked against personnel records, and no independent audit of the figure appears in the reporting.
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Context: what else was in the news
The letter arrived during a period of intense scrutiny. The table below lists the dated events the report connects to it. Only the first row is an event described as having happened; the others were scheduled or announced at the time.
| Date | Event | Status as stated in the 2024 report |
|---|---|---|
| May 2024 | Anonymous employees send the letter to MPs, inquiry representatives and the interim chair. | Sent, and later revealed during an inquiry hearing. |
| September 2024 | Nick Read announces he will step down in March 2025. | Announcement at the time. The report does not confirm when or whether he left. |
| 9 October 2024 | Read is due to begin three days of testimony to the inquiry. | Scheduled, according to the 6 October article. It does not confirm that the hearing went ahead as planned. |
The inquiry was then examining current Post Office practices and recommendations for the future. The same report mentions two separate matters: difficulties with replacing the Horizon system, and an internal investigation into an executive accused of telling staff to “destroy or conceal” potentially relevant evidence. These are distinct reported issues. They provide context for the letter but do not prove its specific claims.
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- Established: the letter was sent in May 2024, it was made public during an inquiry hearing, and Computer Weekly reported its contents and quotations on 6 October 2024.
- Attributed, not verified: the claims about withheld survey results, favouritism, fear of retaliation and the figure of about 120.
- Not established by the reporting: whether any formal investigation followed, whether the full survey results were later published, whether the alleged conflicts were addressed, and what the Post Office’s response was.
- Not covered: any later developments after the October 2024 coverage, including Read’s eventual departure and the identity of the current chief executive. Those need to be checked against current, authoritative sources.
How to follow up on a story like this
If you are tracking the matter for your own reasons, for example because you have a stake in subpostmaster compensation or are watching how the Post Office is governed, a few steps will give you more reliable information than a single news report:
- Start with the statutory Post Office inquiry’s own published transcripts and documents, since the letter was revealed in its hearing.
- Check the date of each source. A report from October 2024 describes what was scheduled and alleged at that time, not the situation today.
- Look for the Post Office’s formal response to the specific allegations. If none is published, note that gap rather than assuming either side’s account.
- Separate three kinds of statement: what a document records, what an official says, and what a campaigner or anonymous author alleges.
The letter remains a set of anonymous allegations, reported in one news story. Its significance depends on what the inquiry and the Post Office have established since, and that record should be consulted directly.
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