Things are getting a bit technical now, so bear with us.

In her witness statement - which you can read here , external- Angela van den Bogerd says she didn't make a connection between the safety of ARQ and the convictions of sub-postmasters and postmistresses.

ARQ refers to an Audit Record Query - data that Post Office managers asked Fujitsu for when resolving Horizon problems.

Beer says Helen Rose was raising a broader issue that the ARQ data logs used in court by the Post Office to prosecute sub-postmasters didn't show the full or real picture. He goes on to ask if that didn't ring alarm bells, to which van den Bogerd says "not for me at the time".

She goes on, saying she expected Rose to "take this issue through her reporting line because this was outside my area of knowledge ... I wouldn't have had the knowledge to know what to do with it".

"Are you saying that you need greater knowledge scope to realise it's a broader serious issue to present inaccurate information to a court?" Beer asks, to which the former Post Office director says.

Inquiry counsel Jason Beer KC is moving away from Martin Griffiths, turning to a report into issues at a Post Office in Lepton, West Yorkshire, known as the Rose report.

As a reminder, fraud analyst Helen Rose was tasked with investigating a suspected Horizon error by a sub-postmaster at his branch in 2012.

Beer says Van den Bogerd was first made aware of the issue in 2013, and pulls up an email from Ron Warmington, a forensic accountant who was handling "spot reviews" into transaction issues, that was sent to her in January of that year.

The email details an issue at a branch where a bill that had been paid was showing up on the system as unpaid, to which Beer suggests the idea that transactions could be lost would have surely been a significant problem for the Post Office.

We're then shown an email chain between Rose and Gareth Jenkins, a former chief IT architect at Fujitsu, about the Lepton issue. Rose forwarded the chain to van den Bogerd in 2013, writing: "I'm not really sure where to take this".

Beer highlights one section where Rose suggests the data they had would not be giving a "true picture". He asks Van den Bogerd if that raised alarm bells. "Not at the time," she says, adding that she was trying to get to the bottom of what was going on in Lepton and wasn't familiar with how Rose or her team worked.

Questioning remains on the money that was given to Martin Griffiths's family, on the condition of keeping quiet about his death in 2013.

"[Confidentiality] was important for Rodric," Angela van den Bogerd says, adding that she wasn't involved in the initial settlement agreement.

Rodric refers to Rodric Williams, a Post Office lawyer, who van den Bogerd say says was involved in Griffiths's wife, Gina, agreeing to "staged payments" in return for her "maintaining confidentiality".

Pressed by Beer, she says it was Williams's idea to insist the Griffiths family wouldn't get any more money if they didn't keep quiet.

At this point, inquiry chair Wyn Williams intervenes to clarify that it was Williams who wanted to include a clause to this effect. Van den Bogerd confirms that's what she means.

She says that she approved the clause Williams added because she was advised to, adding: "My concern at the time was to facilitating that payment to Gina. I felt that I had done as much as I could to help the family financially."

Van den Bogerd confirms long-held suspicions of NDApublished at 11:03 British Summer Time 26 April

11:03 BST 26 April

Emma Simpson
Business correspondent, reporting from the inquiry

Angela Van Den Bogerd has admitted what we long suspected - that the Post Office got Gina Griffiths, wife of Martin Griffiths, to sign an NDA.

The Post Office was offering her £140,000 but, as we've outlined in previous posts, she had to withdraw from the mediation scheme for sub-postmasters who believed they’d been wrongly prosecuted.

Martin Griffiths's suicide, and how the Post Office responded, is one of the most shocking stories in this entire scandal.

We saw some of the family’s ever desperate emails read out this morning.

Van den Bogerd did little to convince us that the Post Office wasn't more interested in protecting the brand than looking after their own branch manager who was facing financial ruin and in huge distress.

Jacqueline Howard
Reporting from the inquiry

The inquiry just heard that it's a normal process for any settlements with Post Office Ltd to come with a non-disclosure agreement (see our earlier posts for why this is relevant in the case of former sub-postmaster Martin Griffiths).

Angela van den Bogerd said so as she swatted away the theory that the Post Office paid a settlement to the Griffiths family in instalments, as an "incentive, using money as a tool to keep the matter hushed up".

"Why?" Beer asks.

"Because that's just the way they operated," Van den Bogerd replies.

"But why - just take a step back from the answer of an automaton," Beer responds, prompting laughter from around the room.

"I just accepted that that was the standard approach," she replies.

The exchange is a timely reminder that Jason Beer - counsel to the inquiry - was here grilling Van den Bogerd only yesterday and while she may have returned today with a better sense of how he conducts his questioning - so too has he of how she responds to the tough questions.

Beer and Van den Bogerd are still talking about an email sent by former sub-postmaster Martin Griffiths's daughter, Lauren, in which she blames the Post Office for her father's death.

Griffiths died by suicide in 2013, after being accused of having a £100,000 shortfall in his accounts.

Beer asks why £140,000 was determined the appropriate figure to offer Griffiths' family in the wake of his death (there's more detail on that in our last post).

Van den Bogerd says Griffiths had registered his interest for the payment prior to his death, and that it was not intended to be a payment for his loss of life. She goes on to say she met Lauren, Griffiths's wife Gina and his mother following his death - and that she offered to give as much support as she could.

She says she was concerned about the financial pressure on the family, and she was trying to facilitate a way for that payment to be made. She also says the payment was subject to a non-disclosure agreement.

Beer puts it to Van den Bogerd that Griffiths's family had a live claim with independent investigators Second Sight, and asks if this would be on condition of dropping it, to which she says "that was the broader piece" of the so-called network transformation payment.

"That's just word soup", Beer responds.

Image source, Post Office inquiry

Another email's being shown to the inquiry now - it's from Martin Griffiths's daughter, Lauren, sent about a year after her father had taken his own life.

In the correspondent, Lauren says she's "disgusted" with how her family has been treated by the Post Office - and that they hold the company "solely and wholly responsible" for her father's death.

She goes on to say that the Post Office's offer of £140k in compensation - on the condition that the family dropped legal recourse - was "simply disgusting". Jason Beer, counsel to the inquiry, asks Angela van den Bogerd - giving evidence - if this is accurate.

She says this was the equivalent to the Post Office's "network transformation payment", which was compensation for postmasters's "loss of office, to leave their branch for it to be transferred to a new postmaster".

The compensation for that loss of office was the equivalent to 26-months remuneration, which was a set calculation offered to sub-postmasters throughout the network, she adds.

We're now seeing an email - sent in 2013 by former sub-postmaster and campaigner for justice Alan Bates - in which he explains Griffiths's suicide attempt, blaming the Post Office.

"We originally thought it was a traffic accident and I was initially concerned for the family," Angela van den Bogerd, a former Post Office executive who's looped in on the email, tells the inquiry.

She says she had got this information from a separate email - not being shown - despite the fact Bates says in his note that Griffiths had tried to take his own life.

Jason Beer, counsel to the inquiry, suggests the Post Office was more concerned with the wellbeing of its reputation, rather than that of Griffiths or his family, to which Van den Bogerd says:

Jacqueline Howard
Reporting from the inquiry

"The first thing was 'let's get a media lawyer'."

That's what Jason Beer KC has just put to Angela van den Bogerd, suggesting this was the first priority of the Post Office after learning of former sub-postmaster Martin Griffiths's suicide attempt.

Van den Bogerd doesn't dispute this - it's set out, in black and white, in an email chain she's looped in on.

The former sub-postmasters in the room today, and there are a lot of them, are shaking their heads. One whispers "disgusting" under her breath.

Counsel to the inquiry, Jason Beer, starts off by asking Angela van den Bogerd about Martin Griffiths - a sub-postmaster of 18 years at Hope Farm, in Cheshire, who the Post Office accused of stealing £100,000.

He died by suicide in 2013.

Beer turns to a letter Griffiths' mother, then in her 80s, wrote to Glen Chester - a regional Post Office contracts manager - in July 2013, where she says her son was under severe pressure and that she had to provide financial support to cover the shortages.

Beer says Griffiths' parents had been using their life savings to balance the books.

He then turns to a robbery that took place at Griffith's Post Office branch, putting it to van den Bogerd that the Post Office determined he was culpable for the robbery.

She says: "For not following certain procedures, yes". Van den Bogerd goes on to say the time lock on the safe was unset, and that she didn't know about this at the time.

Jacqueline Howard
Reporting from the inquiry

Image source, Post Office inquiry

Good morning from Aldwych House in central London.

Last time I was here only a few former sub-postmasters sat in to watch proceedings, but today chairs allocated for members of the public - including former postal workers - are mostly taken.

Angela van den Bogerd, whose evidence will take up the whole day, arrived here bright and early. She's set to face questions from lawyers representing the sub-postmasters this afternoon - in addition to questions from the inquiry counsel this morning.

We've seen Jason Beer KC get a little bit pushy with her, but it's likely to be nothing compared to what she will face later on.

As the session got going a few minutes ago, there was a bit of excitement when it was realised the inquiry's chair Sir Wyn Williams was here in person. He smiled to reporters stationed outside the doors, and seemed to be in good spirits.

Williams often oversees proceedings via a remote link, but today he's here - sitting metres away from van den Bogerd.

The inquiry has just begun its second day of questioning former senior Post Office executive Angela van den Bogerd.

We'll be bringing you the latest developments and analysis here, but you can also follow today's proceedings live by pressing Play at the top of this page.

Van den Bogerd's personal involvement with postmasters likely today's focuspublished at 09:46 British Summer Time 26 April

09:46 BST 26 April

Emma Simpson
Business correspondent, at the inquiry

Angela van den Bogerd was right at the centre of this scandal but you wouldn’t have got that impression if you’d listened to her evidence yesterday.

She distanced herself from the big decisions being made.

For instance, when Post Office IT specialist Simon Baker sketched out a plan to sack independent investigators Second Sight - who were getting to the truth - van den Bogerd told the inquiry she’d no idea this was the strategy, despite having worked with Baker for more than a year.

"Can you tell us what you did do?" asked Jason Beer KC, one of the inquiry's counsel.

Today, we’re likely to hear more about her personal involvement with sub-postmaster and postmistresses.

Martin Griffiths took his own life in 2013 after being hounded for £100,000 worth of losses, which didn’t exist, at his Ellesmere Port branch.

Van den Bogerd is accused of pressuring his widow, Gina, to accept what Second Sight investigator Ron Warmington described as a "pistol to the head" deal, valid for one day only along with a gagging clause to prevent her from speaking about his case.

According to the Department for Business and Trade, there have been 983 UK-wide convictions - 700 Post Office prosecutions and 283 brought by other groups, including the Crown Prosecution Service, since the Horizon IT system was installed in 1999.

So far just 102 people have had their convictions overturned.

A draft report, uncovered by the BBC, shows the Post Office spent £100m fighting hundreds of postmasters in court despite knowing its defence was untrue. The Post Office has said it would be "inappropriate" to comment on the findings.

Image source, .

Meanwhile, the Criminal Cases Review Commission said the scandal was "the most widespread miscarriage of justice" it had seen.

The Post Office prosecutions include some in Scotland and Northern Ireland, where separate action will have to be taken to clear those affected.

Here's a clip from yesterday's hearing - it shows the very beginning of Angela van den Bogerd's evidence, where she read out a pre-written apology to the sub-postmasters and postmistresses affected by the Horizon IT scandal.

She acknowledged that apologising "doesn't change what's happened" - but said, nevertheless, she was "truly, truly sorry for the devastation caused to you, your family and friends".

Watch the moment in full here:

Angela van den Bogerd is back in the hot seat today, after a full day of giving evidence to the inquiry on Thursday. Here’s a quick rundown of where things left off:

• She began with an apology to former sub-postmasters and postmistresses, saying she was "truly sorry for the devastation caused to you, your family and friends"
• Van den Bogerd maintained that she wouldn't knowingly do anything wrong and blamed Fujitsu for not being transparent about the faults with its Horizon software
• The inquiry counsel showed her a number of emails and documents, starting in 2010, that discussed the ability for Fujitsu staff to remotely access Post Office branch accounts through Horizon. But she argued that she either didn't see the correspondence or didn't fully register what it meant until years later when the scandal came to a head
• Asked about her denials of any fault with Horizon, when BBC's Panorama covered the story in 2015, van den Bogerd said she was true to the findings of the investigation by forensic accountants Second Sight
• On that investigation, she said it was not her understanding that the Post Office wanted to remove Second Sight because it was "too independent" and denied knowledge that she was picked to head investigations in its place
• She also said she couldn't remember being told that Fujitsu's Gareth Jenkins - who was ditched as an expert witness from Post Office prosecutions - had given "tainted" evidence

Image source, PA Media

In short, Van den Bogerd was at the Post Office for a long time. In not-so-short:

• She joined the organisation in 1985 - when she worked at branch level
• From 2006-09, having worked her way up, she became a manager in charge of new services offered in the company
• Van den Bogerd was head of network services from 2009-12, dealing with branch relocations, closures, financial services and compliance audits
• She then became head of partnerships, where part of her job was to liaise with unions
• As programme director for the branch support programme (2013-15), she was responsible for improving operations - including in-branch transactions
• Then, as director of support services (2015-16), she was responsible for the sub-postmaster helpline and various other teams, including contract advisors
• From 2017-18, she was the people and change director, responsible for any business transformation projects - including new products, services, working practices and IT projects
• After that, she was people services director, responsible for HR, before leaving the Post Office in 2020 having spent a short time as the business improvement director

Nadia Ragozhina
Live editor

Hello and thank you for joining us for another day of at the Post Office inquiry.

Today we are going to hear once again from Angela van den Bogerd, who was formerly the Post Office’s People Services Director and Programme Director for the Branch Support Programme.

This is the second day of her evidence - because she was at the Post Office for 35 years, her evidence is spread over two days.

We are expecting today’s session to begin at 09:45 BST.

Stay with us as we bring you all the latest lines and analysis, and you can always watch the proceedings live by pressing Play at the top of the page.

We're now going to be pausing our live coverage of the Post Office inquiry. Thanks for joining us.

You can read our write-up of today's hearing here.

We'll be back tomorrow when Angela van den Bogerd gives evidence for a second day.

Image source, PA Media

We're soon going to be pausing our live coverage of the Post Office inquiry. But before we do, here's a recap of some of the evidence we heard today from Angela van den Bogerd, who spent 35 years working for the Post Office and was a senior director during the Horizon scandal:

• She began with an apology to former sub-postmasters and postmistresses, saying she was "truly sorry for the devastation caused to you, your family and friends"
• Van den Bogerd maintained that she wouldn't knowingly do anything wrong and blamed Fujitsu for not being transparent about the faults with its Horizon software
• The inquiry counsel showed her a number of emails and documents, starting in 2010, that discussed the ability for Fujitsu staff to remotely access Post Office branch accounts through Horizon. But she argued that she either didn't see the correspondence or didn't fully register what it meant until years later when the scandal came to a head
• Asked about her denials of any fault with Horizon when BBC's Panorama covered the story in 2015, van den Bogerd said she was true to the findings of the investigation by forensic accountants Second Sight
• On the topic of that investigation, she said it was not her understanding that the Post Office wanted to remove Second Sight because it was "too independent" and denied knowledge that she was picked to head investigations in its place
• She also said she could not remember being told that Fujitsu's Gareth Jenkins - who was ditched as an expert witness from Post Office prosecutions - had given "tainted" evidence