[1] In 2002, David Mills was appointed as chief executive of Post Office Limited, a newly created role.

[17] With declining mail usage, Post Office Limited had chronic losses, with a reported £102 million lost in 2006, raising concerns in the media regarding its ability as a company to operate efficiently.

[23] As part of the Postal Services Act 2011, Post Office Limited became independent of Royal Mail Group on 1 April 2012.

[28] The first chair of the board of the new company was Alice Perkins, who had for a time led human resources management in the Civil Service.

[30] In November 2013, the government committed an additional £640 million of funding for 2015 to 2018 to allow Post Office Limited to complete its network modernisation.

[32] However, in August 2016 it decided "to conclude the trial as the results did not give us sufficient confidence that mobile will contribute to our goal of commercial sustainability".

[36] In December 2017, the government agreed a £370 million funding deal for 2018 to 2021 to further modernise the Post Office network and protect rural branches.

Perkins stood down as chair in July 2015 and was replaced in October of that year by Tim Parker, a businessman who had led and restructured a number of companies.

The Post Office had previously had a significant amount of business from the Government, so driving licences, benefits, that kind of thing.

The Post Office had a range of products which it attempted to sell, with varying degrees of success, and it also had a very complex structure in terms of its overheads and management.In February 2019, the Post Office announced that Vennells would leave her role as CEO to become chair of the Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust.

[46] In February 2021, the Post Office agreed to sell its broadband and home phone services to Shell Energy and exit the telecoms market.

[49] He was replaced in December by Henry Staunton, who had held senior board roles at a number of companies and had chaired WHSmith until June of that year.

[50] He was removed on 27 January 2024, following disagreements with the Business Secretary Kemi Badenoch on matters including the appointment of a new independent director.

[51] In April 2024, CEO Read was "exonerated of all the misconduct allegations" in relation to claims made by a whistleblower, revealed in Parliament.

[63] Since March 2021, Post Office no longer works exclusively with Royal Mail Group and offers parcel services from third party couriers including Evri and DPD, at selected locations.

In 2019, availability of this service was expanded from 89 to approximately 2,500 branches due to increased demand associated with the possibility of a "no deal" Brexit.

[73] In April 2015, the BBC described a confidential report that alleged that the Post Office had made 'failings'[74] with regard to accounting issues with its Horizon IT system, which were identified by subpostmasters as early as 2000.

An earlier article by the BBC had claimed that a confidential report contained allegations that the Post Office had refused to hand over documents that the accountants felt they needed to investigate properly, that training was not good enough, that equipment was outdated, and that power cuts and communication problems had made things worse.

[78] In 2019, the Post Office was lambasted by the High Court for its 'institutional obstinacy or refusal to consider' that its Horizon computer system might be flawed.

[80] On 19 March 2020 she was harshly criticised in the House of Commons, particularly by Kevan Jones, MP for North Durham, who said:[81] Obviously, as a board member she knew what was going on, including the strategy in the court case and the bugs in the system.

Again, I would like to know why and what due diligence was done on her as an individual.On 8 January 2024, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak's spokesman said he would "strongly support" the Honours Forfeiture Committee if it decided to look at removing Vennells's CBE appointment.

[83][84] Vennells's appointment as CBE was formally revoked by King Charles III on 23 February for "bringing the honours system into disrepute".