Ali Abbas Ahmadi
Reporting from the inquiry

Thus far, Davies has answered Julian Blake's questions confidently and calmly - as the half empty room listens in silence.

An important moment was when he was challenged on his response to the news that sub-postmaster Martin Griffiths had taken his own life.

In an email shown on screen, Davies at the time responded to the news of Griffith's death by saying that the Post Office should get a "specialist media lawyer".

In the Inquiry room, Davies says he was "deeply shocked" to hear the news, but says that trying to get a specialist media lawyer at the time was "the right thing to do".

Davies is shown an email from Alan Bates, that the inquiry has seen before. It details an incident where a sub-postmaster was allegedly driven to take his own life.

Davies response to the email was to line up a "specialist media lawyer".

Blake asks if the incident with Martin Griffiths part of a culture that was open to challenge.

Davies says it was a "difficult incident, we were very shocked".

He adds that his role as the comms director made him aware of the likelihood of media coverage of this case, and that he was very conscious of media guidelines of attempted suicide.

"It was the right thing to do," he says.

He denies his priority was protecting the post office from negative publicity

Counsel to the inquiry Julian Blake is taking Davies through part of his witness statement where he is full of praise for the communications team he led, and former senior executives at the Post Office.

In his witness statement, Davies vouches for the integrity of Paula Vennells, who was the Post Office's chief executive from 2012 to 2019, and the wider board in their "diligent and effective"" dealing with issues relating to Horizon.

Davies confirms it is fair to sum up his statement as characterising the senior leadership as being committed to opening up to challenge.

The lawyer then pulls up an email we've seen earlier in this inquiry which Vennells sent to Davies discussing the terminology they should use to describe the "bugs" in the Horizon software.

Davies says there was no issue with the word "bugs" but thought it "sounded too slangy".

He says he thought using the word "exception" instead would convey the "seriousness" of the matter.

Davies begins by amending comments about previous media coverage in a witness statement and confirming his name and the truth of his statement.

Stay with us as the questions begin.

Image source, Post Office inquiry

Mark Davies is being sworn in to give evidence and questioning will begin shortly.

Stay with us as we bring you the latest lines from the inquiry.

You can watch live by pressing Play above.

Here’s some more details on the 2015 Panorama programme that the Post Office attempted to block from broadcasting.

In the period leading up to the broadcast of Trouble at the Post Office:

• Experts interviewed by the BBC were sent intimidating letters by Post Office lawyers about their participation in the programme
• Senior Post Office managers briefed the BBC that neither their staff nor Fujitsu - the company which built and maintained the Horizon system - could remotely access sub-postmasters' accounts, even though Post Office directors had been warned four years earlier that such remote access was possible
• Lawyers for the Post Office sent letters threatening to sue Panorama and the company's public relations boss Mark Davies escalated complaints to ever more senior BBC managers

The Post Office has declined to comment while the public inquiry is ongoing.

You can read the full story behind the battle over the programme and its impact, here.

Ali Abbas Ahmadi
Reporting from the inquiry

Good morning from Aldwych House in rainy central London.

Mark Davies, the former Post Office PR boss, arrived bright and early. He walked straight past the BBC crew as he walked into the building, and I ended up awkwardly sitting next to him in the lobby for a few brief moments.

Davies - a former BBC employee - will face questions about his role in trying to unsuccessfully stop the BBC Panorama programme about the Post Office from airing in 2015.

People have begun trickling into the inquiry room, and inquiry counsel Julian Blake is taking his position at the podium.

But the room doesn't seem as busy as it has been over the past few weeks.

The prime minister says the government will bring in a new law to clear the names of all the sub-postmasters and mistresses in England and Wales who were wrongfully convicted because of a faulty computer system.

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

So far just 93 have had their convictions overturned.

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

Image source, .

Image source, EPA

More than 900 sub-postmasters were wrongly prosecuted for stealing because of incorrect information from a computer system called Horizon.

The Post Office itself took many cases to court, prosecuting 700 people between 1999 and 2015.

Another 283 cases were brought by other bodies, including the Crown Prosecution Service(CPS).

Many sub-postmasters went to prison for false accounting and theft, and several were financially ruined.

In 2017, a group of 555 sub-postmasters took legal action against the Post Office.

In 2019, it agreed to pay them £58m in compensation, but much of the money went on legal fees.

A draft report uncovered by the BBC showed the Post Office spent £100m fighting the group in court despite knowing its defence was untrue.

The Post Office said it would be"inappropriate" to comment on the report.

Although campaigners won the right for their cases to be reconsidered, only 102 convictions had been overturned, external, external by March 2024.

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

The Metropolitan Police is also investigating the Post Office over potential fraud offences.

Emma Simpson
Business correspondent

Mark Davies was the Post Office Director of Communications and Corporate Affairs between 2012-2019 as the alleged cover up was in full swing.

He presided over an aggressive media strategy, especially when it came to the BBC.

In 2015 it broadcast a Panorama documentary that the Post Office tried to stop or water down.

It included testimony from a whistleblower from Fujitsu who revealed that branch accounts could be remotely altered without the sub-postmasters knowing.

But the Post Office threatened and lied to the BBC as it tried to suppress this key piece of evidence that later helped sub-postmasters in their landmark legal victory against the Post Office.

Davies was part of the small team who gave a misleading briefing to BBC journalists and also escalated complaints to BBC bosses.

It's now clear the Post Office had known about remote access as early as 2010.

For many, Davies played a key role in the Post Office’s defence of the indefensible. Why did they keep on spinning a narrative that was very different to the reports and evidence emerging internally?

Lawyers for Davies told Panorama he had acted at all times entirely in good faith and that his statements had been based on the information he was given at the time.

According to his LinkedIn post, he now heads communications at the Refugee Council.

Johanna Chisholm
Live reporter

Good morning and welcome to our live coverage of today’s Post Office inquiry hearing.

Facing questions today is Mark Davies, the former director of communications at the Post Office.

One of the key areas we can expect him to be asked about is the part he played in an effort to suppress a BBC Panorama programme in 2015, which featured whistleblower testimony.

The programme included key evidence that eventually helped clear postmasters in the Horizon scandal, which saw more than 900 sub-postmasters wrongly prosecuted for stealing.

The Post Office's false claims did not stop the programme, but they did cause the BBC to delay the broadcast by several weeks.

We’ll have all the key exchanges here, plus some analysis from inside the inquiry. As always, you’ll be able to watch a live stream of the inquiry at the top of the page when it gets under way this morning.