Welby: Church fell short over Vennells role

PAULA VENNELLS should have been prevented from working for the Church of England in the wake of the Post Office sub-postmasters’ scandal, the Archbishop of Canterbury has suggested.

Ms Vennells, who was the Post Office’s chief executive from 2012 to 2019, held four senior advisory positions within the Church and is reported to have been shortlisted to become Bishop of London in 2017.

She took up the advisory roles after the Horizon scandal emerged and the Post Office agreed to pay out £58 million in compensation in 2019.

More than 700 sub-postmasters were prosecuted between 1999 and 2015 after faulty Horizon accounting software suggested they had stolen money.

Fewer than 100 convictions have been overturned to date in what has been described as the most widespread miscarriage of justice in British history.

The Most Rev Justin Welby, who Church sources have claimed “endorsed” Ms Vennells for Bishop of London, has now admitted that “questions should have been asked about the inappropriateness” of Ms Vennells’ seniority in the Church in his first comments since her work came to light last month.

“As has been said more generally about Paula Vennells’ involvement in various committees and working groups in the Church of England, by 2019 and 2020, it is clear that more questions should have been asked about the appropriateness of that involvement when more had come to light about the Horizon scandal,” he said in a written reply to a question submitted to General Synod, the Church’s legislative body.

“We recognise this and will need to reflect on it.”

Church sources have claimed that in 2017, Ms Vennells made a four-person shortlist to become the Bishop of London, the Church’s third most senior position after the archbishops of Canterbury and York, despite her never having served as a vicar, area dean or junior bishop.

Ms Vennells has not been stripped of permission to officiate, the most severe punishment in the Church’s powers.

The Church of England and Ms Vennells were approached for comment.