Post Office annual-report figures show that Paula Vennells received more than £400,000 in total remuneration in each year from 2015 to 2019, including £717,000 in 2019. Those are annual remuneration totals, not evidence of a separate severance or departure payment. The report reviewed does not establish whether she received such a payment when she left.
How much was Paula Vennells paid as Post Office chief executive?
Post Office Limited’s 2024 annual report identifies its CEO remuneration figures for 2015–2019 as relating to Paula Vennells. The table reports annual total remuneration in thousands of pounds:
| Year | Total remuneration |
|---|---|
| 2015 | £522,000 |
| 2016 | £619,000 |
| 2017 | £671,000 |
| 2018 | £718,000 |
| 2019 | £717,000 |
These are annual totals, not salary figures alone. The report also breaks remuneration into components and incentive rates; describing the table’s total as “pay and bonuses” may obscure those distinctions. The figures are reported for the years shown and should not be read as a separate payment made when Vennells left.
Do the figures show a departure payment?
No. The remuneration table records annual CEO remuneration, not a distinct exit payment. The 2024 report also says there were no payments to past directors in 2023/24, but that later-year statement does not establish whether Vennells received a departure-related payment in 2019. The annual figures therefore support a claim about her remuneration while CEO, not a claim that she “walked away” with a particular severance sum.
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Why her tenure is scrutinised
The pay figures sit against the consequences of the Horizon IT scandal. A 2024 Business and Trade Committee report describes Horizon errors between 1999 and 2015 that created false shortfalls in branch accounts. The Post Office demanded that sub-postmasters cover the shortfalls; some were suspended or dismissed, and some were prosecuted, convicted and imprisoned. The committee also described serious reputational, health and financial harm.
In a 2022 report, the Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy Committee said the Post Office prosecuted 736 sub-postmasters and sub-postmistresses between 2000 and 2014 based on information from Horizon. It recorded that some were imprisoned and many were financially ruined. The number refers to prosecutions over that stated period, as reported by the committee.
Vennells’ evidence and the inquiry
Vennells, identified by the Post Office Horizon IT Inquiry as the former Group Chief Executive Officer of Post Office Ltd, gave evidence on 24 May 2024. The inquiry’s phases examined redress and access to justice, complaints and mediation, the group litigation, the Post Office response, governance, Horizon monitoring, audit, oversight and whistleblowing. Her evidence formed part of a wider inquiry into the scandal and the organisation’s handling of it.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.What routes to redress have been identified?
The Business and Trade Committee identified three compensation routes for affected people:
Do these 3 things before closing this tab:
1Repair Windows errors before they cause bigger problems2Fix the driver behind crashes, sound loss and screen glitches3Clear out junk files and repair common Windows errors- The Group Litigation Order scheme.
- The Horizon Shortfall Scheme.
- The Overturned Convictions process.
The committee raised concerns about Post Office involvement in delivering redress and recommended that government remove the company from that role and establish a properly resourced independent intermediary for claimants. Those are the committee’s findings and recommendations, not a statement here about whether or how they were later implemented.
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Sources
- Post Office Limited, Annual Report and Accounts 2024 (remuneration report).
- Post Office Horizon IT Inquiry, Phases 5/6 hearing page, 24 May 2024.
- Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy Committee, Post Office and Horizon – Compensation: interim report, 17 February 2022.
- Business and Trade Committee, Post Office and Horizon redress: Instruction to deliver, 7 March 2024.
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