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Emma Simpson
Business correspondent

There are three witnesses today. Graham Ward is coming back to give evidence for a second time.

He’s an ex-Post Office investigator and former security team casework manager. He joined the business in 1995 and left in 2016.

In February, the inquiry heard Ward suggested the words “system failure” be deleted from a witness statement to prove the Horizon system wasn’t to blame for supposed missing money.

Then it’s the turn of Tony Kearns, deputy General Secretary of the Communications Workers Union.

Finally, we’ll be hearing from Kay Linnell. You may remember her from the TV drama. She’s a forensic accountant who became involved with the campaign for justice for the wrongly accused sub-postmasters.

This page is closing for today, thank you very much for joining us.

Duncan Tait arrived at Fujitsu as MD in 2009, staying until 2019.

Either you failed or your staff failed to tell you what was going on, Sam Stein KC asked him on behalf of the victims. Which answer would you prefer?

“I don’t think it’s a question of which I would prefer,” Tait replied.

He repeatedly told the inquiry he was reassured about the integrity of the Horizon system based on the information he received, insisting they had good governance in place.

But he admitted in hindsight, he should have “done something” to find if there was any substance to the growing complaints, as the media was “spot on.”

And throughout his tenure, Mr Tait said he wasn’t aware of the role of the key expert witness and Fujitsu engineer, Gareth Jenkins.

Did he ever have a conversation with Paula Vennells about remote access?

I’ve no recollection of that conversation, he replied.

Mr Christou said he had no knowledge of prosecutions during his time.

He didn’t believe bugs were really to blame saying discrepancies weren’t properly presented in evidence. “The real issue was the way prosecutions were handled.. and the flow of info.”

He said he’d never met the Fujitsu engineer Gareth Jenkins and he was surprised to hear he’d been used as an expert witness.

The inquiry heard it wasn’t even clear in the contract whether Mr Jenkins was obliged to provide opinion as part of his evidence. Mr Christou agreed that if this was the case, it should have been approved by the board. He also thought Mr Jenkins should’ve been given independent legal advice.

Emma Simpson
Business correspondent

We’ve spent much of the morning looking at the roll out of Horizon and the £1bn contract between Fujitsu and the Post Office.

In his witness statement, Richard Christou said he always regarded Horizon as one of Fujitsu’s major successes, with the Post Office a “satisfied customer.”

What did the board know about the problems?

Richard Christou said details of technical issues weren’t discussed.

He was asked what level of accountability he had as the UK boss.

Mr Christou replied: "If you mean that I was responsible for the miscarriage of justice then I don't accept that. It's not to mitigate the miscarriage of justice - I should add I think it's a gross miscarriage of justice. I really feel for the sub-postmasters and the postmasters who are involved.”

Emma Simpson
Business correspondent

We're going to be hearing from two of the UK bosses of Fujitsu today.

First up will be Richard Christou who was the UK Chief Executive and Chairman from 2000 until 2010.

This covers the first phase of the scandal after Fujitsu's faulty IT Horizon system was rolled out across the branch network - and the prosecutions got under way as sub-postmasters were blamed for losses caused by a host of bugs, errors and defects.

What did he know about the problems? Was he aware that branch accounts could secretly be altered by some Fujitsu staff?

The same questions could be asked of Duncan Tait who took over in 2011. During his tenure, a Fujitsu engineer, Gareth Jenkins, gave misleading evidence in court cases until the Post Office was warned about it in 2013.

Mr Tait was still in post as Alan Bates fought the Post Office in court, leaving in 2019.

He's called the scandal a "terrible miscarriage of justice" and said he was sorry "for any role Fujitsu played."

We're restarting our coverage of the Post Office Inquiry. Today it will be hearing from two of the UK bosses of Fujitsu. We won't be providing regular text updates on this page but you can follow the inquiry live by pressing the Watch live button above.

The inquiry into the Post Office scandal has finished for today.

We've been hearing from Ron Warmington and Ian Henderson, the directors of Second Sight Support Services Limited.

Forensic accountant Ian Henderson told the inquiry that the Post Office was "constantly sabotaging" the work of independent investigators probing issues with the Horizon IT system.

He says the Post Office unjustifiably withheld documents from his company, Second Sight, which was brought in to investigate the accounting software in 2012.

Henderson added that protecting the Post Office brand was the priority, rather than supporting sub-postmasters.

Read our full story on the day here.

Emma Simpson
Business correspondent

Paul Marshall is a barrister who represented a number of victims in overturning their wrongful convictions. As he tried to get to grips with the issues, he soon realised that Ron and Ian were almost the only people who properly and fully understood what had happened.

And that remains his view today. "They put their finger on all of the most important issues," he says.

In his view, the key one was remote access - the ability of someone to secretly alter branch accounts without the postmaster knowing, something the Post Office denied for years was possible.

He says they also flagged up the receipt and payments mismatch bug, which Lord Justice Fraser deemed the most important bug in the high court legal action years later.

Mr Marshall is attending today's session and is hoping to hear more on their knowledge of Post Office suspense accounts.

“They identified that millions of pounds of had been posted to these bank accounts from unallocated transactions and later credited to its profit and loss account.”

Azadeh Moshiri
Reporting from outside the inquiry

One thing that’s clear when you attend the public inquiry is that when the victims’ own champions turn up, they come to support them.

The independent forensic investigators Ian Henderson and Ron Warmington of Second Sight are very much seen as two of their champions, so it’s no surprise several former sub-postmasters are in attendance today.

Nitin Pandit tells me, in his view, unlike the current and former Post Office executives we’ve heard from, the Second Sight witnesses are “totally open and honest” and “want to help this inquiry”. He says that's partly why he came to listen to them.

It’s a reminder that former sub-postmasters still feel the truth needs to be told and their stories heard.

Nitin says he doesn’t feel any closer to justice, since former sub-postmasters are still fighting for financial redress.

He does acknowledge one piece of good news though. Nitin says the news of Sir Alan Bates’ knighthood is “absolutely fantastic”.

Emma Simpson
Business correspondent

You may not have heard of Ron Warmington and Ian Henderson, but they played a pivotal role in uncovering this terrible scandal. In the ITV drama Mr Bates vs the Post Office, the pair are amalgamated into the character Bob Rutherford.

They led Second Sight, a team of independent forensic accountants, who were paid by the Post Office, at the instigation of MPs and the Justice for Sub-Postmasters Alliance, to investigate the growing complaints from sub-postmasters in 2012. They were tenacious and thorough.

Their interim report the following year revealed serious concerns. They reported the existence of two bugs which had caused problems with balances at 76 branches, raising doubts about the reliability of the Horizon data used to prosecute sub-postmasters.

They were involved in the subsequent mediation scheme to help victims.

The Post Office initially co-operated with Second Sight. But by 2015, Ian Henderson was telling MPs they were refusing to hand over prosecution files.

Within a month of his evidence to this parliamentary select committee, Second Sight were sacked and the PO had terminated the mediation scheme.

They pair allege they were stopped for "getting too close to the truth".

Sub-postmasters say they owe a real debt of gratitude to the Second Sight duo. Lee Castleton, who was made bankrupt by the Post Office seventeen years ago, says the pair could've just crumbled under the pressure from the Post Office. "They listened to us and instead of being told what to believe they went and found out for themselves. That's all we asked and they did it in spades, " Lee told the ���˿���.

Welcome to this morning's livestream-only page, as the inquiry into the Post Office Horizon scandal continues.

Today, we are hearing evidence from Ron Warmington and Ian Henderson, the directors of Second Sight. The independent forensic accountants played a key role in exposing the scandal, finding flaws in the Horizon computer system which generated false evidence of cash shortfalls at sub-post offices, leading to wrongful prosecutions of sub-postmasters.

Documents obtained by the ���˿��� earlier this year showed Post Office bosses secretly decided in April 2014 to sack forensic accountants who had found bugs in their IT system.

You can follow the inquiry live by clicking the Play button at the top of the screen.