The Post Office Scandal: Part II

Overview

Recording date – 14 March 2025

The UK Post Office Scandal—a cautionary tale of systemic governance failures—continues to send shockwaves through boardrooms worldwide. Over two decades, more than 900 sub-postmasters were wrongfully prosecuted, their lives devastated by errors in the Horizon IT system and the toxic culture and ineffective governance that enabled this crisis.

This landmark case, with new information emerging from the recently concluded Inquiry, is not just a story about technology gone wrong. It is a stark reminder of the critical role boards play in ethical leadership, accountability, and stakeholder engagement. How did successive boards fail to scrutinise management, challenge groupthink, and address the risks hiding in plain sight? Most importantly, what lessons can directors take to strengthen governance in their own organisations?

In this webcast, Dr Roger Barker MInstD, Director of Policy and Corporate Governance at the UK Institute of Directors, and Guy Beatson CMInstD, General Manager of the Governance Leadership Centre at IoD NZ, examined the governance breakdowns that made this crisis possible. They explored how directors in New Zealand and globally can apply these lessons, including insights from Phase 6 of the Inquiry, which focused on governance.

This session covered:

• Critical governance insights from the UK Inquiry’s latest report into the Post Office Scandal and analysis by IoD UK.
• Actionable strategies to improve ethical leadership, risk oversight, and stakeholder trust.

Catch up now to gain valuable governance lessons from one of the most significant corporate accountability failures in recent history.

Speakers

Dr Roger Barker MInstD 

Dr. Roger Barker is Director of Policy and Corporate Governance at the Institute of Directors, the UK’s oldest professional body for business leaders. Dr. Barker is a well-known speaker on governance issues, and the author of four books and numerous articles on corporate governance and directorship. Dr. Barker is a former member of the European Economic and Social Committee and spent almost 15 years in a variety of equity research and senior management roles at UBS and Bank Vontobel, both in the UK and Switzerland. He has a doctorate from Oxford University and taught politics at Merton College, Oxford.

CPD

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