Zoe Conway
Employment correspondent, reporting from the inquiry

"Sub-postmasters were being sent to prison with no real scrutiny" - so said Flora Page, a barrister representing sub postmasters, towards the end of the day.

It felt like the perfect summing up of why so much of the inquiry has been spent trying to understand why government ministers weren't paying more attention to what the Post Office was up to.

Sir Ed Davey and Pat McFadden explained that the Post Office was meant to be at "arm's length" from government; their ministerial workload was immense; they had to rely on what their officials were advising them; the Post Office was emphatic that the Horizon computer system was robust.

All of that may have been true.

But what also emerged today was just how many MPs were writing detailed letters to them about the plight of their sub-postmaster constituents. Why weren’t they listened to more?

Image source, PA Media

Today's inquiry has heard from two high profile politicians on their actions during respective periods as ministers in charge of postal affairs.

Don't worry if you've not been following all day, we've pulled a handy summary together for you here:

• Pat McFadden, now a Labour cabinet minister, emphasised the separation between Post Office Limited and the government, with ministers having no role running the business on a day-to-day basis
• However, he said later that ultimately accountability for a state-owned organisation lies with government
• He referenced multiple times the Post Office's "emphatic" defence of the Horizon IT system

• Ed Davey, the Lib Dem leader, was the second to give evidence today. He told the inquiry he wasn't aware that the Post Office carried out prosecutions against sub-postmasters when he was postal affairs minister
• He further said that he was "lied to" about "serious flaws" in the IT system - someone senior must have known the truth he said
• He insisted that the decision to meet Alan Bates in October 2010 was his own and not, as was put to him, for "presentational reasons". Further saying he found Bates to be credible

We'll shortly be closing our live page, but if you want to read in a bit more detail - our story is here

You can also read further stories, background articles and pieces on those affected here.

Today's live coverage was brought to you by Cachella Smith, Sophie Abdulla, Malu Cursino, Francesca Gillett, Phelan Chatterjee and Nathan Wiliams.

Francesca Gillett
Reporting from the inquiry

Davey's evidence wraps up and the inquiry chair, Wyn Williams, thanks him for answering the many questions today.

He and Pat McFadden this morning have been the most prominent politicians this inquiry has heard from so far.

But there are more politicians due up this week and next, as the inquiry continues to probe who knew what, and when. Vince Cable and Greg Clark are among those we've still got to hear from.

Francesca Gillett
Reporting from the inquiry

Flora Page, representing some of the victims, puts it to Davey that people were being sent to prison by a state-owned entity and that should have demanded real scrutiny.

It should indeed, says Davey.

And it doesn't seem to have happened, the lawyer replies.

Davey says he's disappointed the questions he asked "were not put more forcefully" and he had "assumed I was being told the truth".

Davey is now being asked questions on a 2010 Post Office internal report which suggested that the IT system at the heart of this inquiry was robust. That was widely cited by the Post Office as proof that Horizon was reliable.

Pressed on how regularly he had meetings with David Smith - who commissioned the report - and if he had raised any concerns with him, Davey says he couldn't recall and that most meetings were brief.

At the time, Smith said he was "delighted" with Seema Misra's conviction. As a reminder, Misra was wrongfully convicted of diverting public funds while a sub-postmistress - and jailed while pregnant.

Tim Moloney KC, who represents a large number of sub-postmasters, is now putting his questions to Davey.

He presents a letter from Allison Henderson to MP Norman Lamb, which was forwarded eventually onto Davey. Henderson says she was facing a trial for theft and false accounting - but had never taken a penny.

We then see Davey's reply to the letter - which says that Henderson had "at no time during the case" raised problems with the Horizon IT system.

But then the inquiry is shown a Court of Appeal judgement saying Henderson had indeed mentioned Horizon issues during her trial.

Davey says what he has been shown is "quite shocking" and apologises, saying he had been asked to sign a letter that was "clearly wrong" - and he didn't realise at the time.

Francesca Gillett
Reporting from the inquiry

Jo Hamilton is one of the more recognisable victims of the Post Office scandal after her campaigning and also being portrayed in the ITV drama.

She's sitting next to Tim Moloney - the lawyer currently doing the questioning - and appears to be listening intently to Davey's responses.

Francesca Gillett
Reporting from the inquiry

Jason Beer finishes up his questions - and now hands over to lawyers representing different groups of sub-postmasters.

First up is Tim Moloney KC, who begins by asking Davey about the letters he was receiving raising issues with Horizon.

Davey is asked whether he is arguing for a duty of candour - a legal requirement for public servants to tell the truth - which was addressed yesterday in the King’s Speech. He says yes.

He also says one of the big problems from this "tragedy" and "appalling miscarriage of justice" is how arm's-length bodies are managed.

Davey suggests there needs to be a process within government for ministers to raise questions - for example, if there's a real concern about too many prosecutions going through the court that shouldn't be.

But he says there needs to be a balance, as "you don't want to give ministers power to abuse the court's independence".

Staying on the meeting with Bates, Davey tells the inquiry he found Sir Alan "reasonable and credible".

He says his was a "strong" story that needed to be looked at - adding that he was an "articulate" champion for his case.

Francesca Gillett
Reporting from the inquiry

Image source, EPA

Former sub-postmaster Mark Kelly - who was falsely accused of stealing money from his post office in Swansea - tells me today's evidence shows Davey "didn't do his job" properly.

"He could have done more," he says outside the inquiry room as we take a break. "It seems like he relied on what the officials said too much and didn't use his initiative."

"Before Horizon was installed, about one postmaster was prosecuted every year. Post-Horizon it went up to one a week. Common sense would have told him there's something not right here."

Kelly - who has brought his support dog along - says Davey "could have said to the officials: can I actually see the material".

Beer, who's questioning Davey, turns again to the meeting with Bates on 7 October 2010. He notes that sub-postmistress Seema Misra's trial started a few days later, on 11 October 2010.

“Was, to your recollection, Seema Misra’s case and her impending trial discussed at the meeting?” Beer asks.

Davey responds: “I can’t remember but I think in the reply that I gave to Sir Alan, there was a reference to it...

“But that may have been because he wrote two letters subsequent to the meeting...

“I can’t remember it being raised at the meeting.”

Davey is now being shown a briefing document he received from his officials that contains a few paragraphs uncritically describing the integrity of the Horizon IT system.

The lawyer leading the questioning shows a Post Office document with the exact same paragraphs - and suggests they'd just been copy and pasted into Davey's briefing without attribution to the Post Office.

"This is not what I expected," says Davey, adding the cut-and-paste "surprised" him.

Francesca Gillett
Reporting from the inquiry

The audience in the inquiry room nods in approval as lawyer Jason Beer suggests Davey only agreed to meet Alan Bates after the mainstream media started to pick up the story.

Davey denies this was the case. He's been insisting that he decided to meet Bates in the summer before he learnt that Channel 4 were planning to run a news story.

Davey's now asked why he met Mr Bates after his second letter.

That letter was followed by reports that Channel 4 were planning a news item on the issue.

Asked whether a recommendation was made to Davey to meet with Bates "for presentational reasons", Davey responds "this is wrong".

He agrees "totally" that such motivation for a meeting would be plastic or synthetic.

Davey reiterates that in addition to Bates' second letter, the Justice For Sub-Postmasters Alliance also presented a reason to meet - while ministers could not respond to court cases on individuals, it seemed "reasonable" to meet a group of people who had come together.

More on Davey's exchanges with Bates in 2010, now.

Bates wrote to Davey for a second time on 8 July of that year, saying the then-minister's response to his earlier warning letter - refusing to meet him - was "not only disappointing" but contained "offensive" comments.

Bates added that it wasn't that Davey couldn't get involved or investigate the matter - it was because of his arm's-length relationship with the Post Office.

This, he suggested, enabled "thugs in suits" to "carry on with impunity regardless of the humans misery and suffering they inflict".

He called on Davey to convene a meeting to discuss.

Davey, in his witness statement, recalls being shown the letter by officials and said he wanted to meet him - and then did so on 7 October.

Davey is now shown a letter he sent in 2011. He is asked if he was still taking the line that Horizon was an operational issue, and the government was keeping an arm's-length approach to the Post Office.

Davey replies "yes", but goes on to say that by this time he'd had a meeting with Alan Bates in October the previous year and had made follow-up enquiries.

He says that after getting letters from Bates and other stakeholders, he realises it may not have been just an operational matter.

Davey's now shown a 2010 email exchange between Oliver Griffiths - from the government's Shareholder Executive - and former Post Office managing director David Smith.

In the email, Griffiths says MPs' concerns over Horizon were being described as an operational matter for the Post Office, adding: "We are in theory happy to continue holding this line." He asks Smith how confident the Post Office is that there's nothing behind the claims.

Davey is asked whether this is the extent of probing of the Post Office. He repeats that ministers have to rely on being told the truth.

The inquiry is shown parliamentary questions from Priti Patel.

Patel asked how many discussions ministers had had with the Post Office on Horizon. Davey's draft answer said he’d had no such discussion and was unable to provide information.

Another letter, from a constituent of former MP Alun Michael, is brought up. In it, the constituent said: "I am not alone in suffering from a system which is prone to errors."

Francesca Gillett
Reporting from the inquiry

One repeated refrain from Davey is that he was "very reliant" on his officials who were giving him advice and drafting replies to people raising issues about Horizon.

It's something Pat McFadden also said earlier too.

And it's these exchanges which seem to exasperate some of the people here.