Alice Perkins' second day at the Post Office inquiry has now finished, during which it heard that government officials weighed up sacking Paula Vennells as the Post Office's chief executive in 2014 some five years before she resigned.

You can read our news story summing up what happened today here, and if you want to delve deeper, our comprehensive explainer on why hundreds of sub-postmasters were wrongly prosecuted is here.

Thanks for joining us.

Emma Simpson
Reporting from the inquiry

We learnt something new this morning - government officials were considering sacking former CEO Paula Vennells in 2014.

The inquiry was shown an internal government document which appeared to be from a risk and assurance committee. Her position was under review, the inquiry heard.

Remember, the government owns the Post Office and its interests in the business were overseen by the Shareholder Executive, made up of senior industry people.

In the summary, it says there was “a general consensus that Paula is no longer the right person to lead POL but justification is anecdotal”.

She had a “worrying” lack of knowledge and her “people management” was causing concern, it said.

Alice Perkins says she didn’t know the “machinery inside the department” was having these conversations.

She told the inquiry she’d had reservations by then, too. What about other board members?

“I think everybody had by this stage” she replied. Paula Vennells stayed on for another five years and was awarded a CBE after she finished.

Azadeh Moshiri
Reporting from the inquiry

The inquiry heard that in 2014 there were concerns around Paula Vennells’ role as chief executive, years before she resigned in 2019.

We saw a document put together by the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills - and the shareholder representative on the board. It discussed Vennells’ role being under review.

And here are some of the reasons why:

"There is a general consensus that Paula is no longer the right person to lead POL [Post Office Ltd] but justification is anecdotal."

"She had been unable to work with personalities that provide robust challenge to her."

The inquiry counsel Jason Beer asked Alice Perkins whether Vennells preferred having “yes men and yes women around her”, “a coterie of trusted lieutenants,” as he put it. Perkins denied that but admitted she had concerns about her ability to lead the Post Office, partly because of her handling of Horizon issues.

Perkins said the documents shown to the inquiry today were "complete news" to her.

Image source, Post Office inquiry

Emma Simpson
Business correspondent, reporting from the inquiry

Former Post Office chair Alice Perkins is back again for another day of questions at the inquiry.

Her defence has been that she failed to realise the significance of the warnings when she started out in her role in 2011.

She’d been hired to focus on modernising the Post Office and stem the losses. “There were a great many other issues I was attending to,” she said.

Yes, she could’ve asked more questions but insisted at no point was she trying to bury information.

And then she said that the board hadn’t been kept properly informed about vital information.

She blamed her top lawyer Susan Crichton for failing to inform them about “revelatory” legal advice on a tainted Post Office witness used in criminal prosecutions, even though Perkins had kept her out of a key board meeting.

Perkins thought that what went wrong amounted to more of a “cock up” than a conspiracy. Sub-postmasters don’t agree with that conclusion and their lawyers will get a chance to grill her today.

As Alice Perkins' first day at the Post Office inquiry comes to an end, so too does our live coverage.

We'll be restarting this page tomorrow for the former Post Office chair's second day of evidence, so do join us then.

If you want to read more in the meantime, there's still plenty on offer:

• Catch up with the key lines from today's session here
• And read our comprehensive explainer on why hundreds of sub-postmasters were wrongly prosecuted here

Thanks for joining us.

Emma Simpson
Business correspondent, reporting from the inquiry

Image source, Post Office Horizon IT Inquiry

One of the most interesting moments this morning was learning how former Post Office chair Alice Perkins was aware of Horizon problems just weeks into her new job.

She met a partner from Ernst & Young, the Post Office's independent auditors. In a handwritten note she made of the discussion, shown to the inquiry, he tells her that the Horizon computer system was “a real risk for us”.

He questioned whether data was being captured properly and also mentioned how “suspects” were suggesting it was a problem, too.

Perkins admitted to the inquiry that this information was very significant, but counsel Jason Beer KC accused her of failing to act on it.

Perkins couldn’t recall what, if anything, she did with this knowledge. Why didn’t she see the connection between concerns over the data and criminal prosecutions? “I’m a human being, and I didn’t see it,” she said.

Alice Perkins acknowledges, in several exchanges, that she should’ve asked more questions.

You can watch Alice Perkins' evidence live by pressing play at the top of the page after 09:45 BST - as a reminder, there will not be regular text updates.

Emma Simpson
Business correspondent

There are many questions for Alice Perkins over the next two days, including a key board meeting in 2013.

It took place on 16 July, shortly after the Second Sight interim review was published, which identified several computer bugs that raised doubts over the reliability of Horizon data used to prosecute sub-postmasters.

Tensions were high. The Post Office’s top lawyer, Susan Crichton, had been due to present a paper to the board about Horizon issues and past criminal prosecutions but was prevented by Alice Perkins from going in, according to evidence from Paula Vennells - who delivered the paper herself despite not being a lawyer.

The inquiry heard that Crichton was left outside like a “naughty schoolgirl”. The inquiry will want to know why.

Did Alice Perkins try to hide problems from the board?

Emma Simpson
Business correspondent

Image source, PA Media

Former Post Office Chair Alice Perkins is answering questions today. She held the role between 2011-2015, as the business split from Royal Mail.

As chair, she oversaw the Post Office board during a key period in the scandal when concerns about the Horizon IT system began to mount, overlapping for most of her tenure with former CEO Paula Vennells.

Perkins is a former senior civil servant and served on several company boards. She’s also married to ex-Labour Home Secretary Jack Straw. Perkins set in train the appointment of the independent investigators Second Sight, who played a key role in exposing the scandal.

But she also chaired a Post Office sub-committee, codenamed “Project Sparrow”, which secretly decided in 2014 to sack Second Sight.

By then the Post Office was trying to defuse the growing crisis through a mediation scheme for victims. But the committee also discussed closing or speeding up the programme, paying “token” compensation to sub-postmasters in the process.