Post Office boss asked about his pay and bonuses 'more than expected', says board member

The chair of the Post Office's remuneration committee has said she was surprised at how frequently the company's boss, Nick Read, asked about his pay and bonuses, given the pressure it was under due to the ongoing fallout from the Horizon IT scandal.

- Mark Sweney Jane Croft

Amanda Burton, who joined the board of the Post Office as a nonexecutive director last April, was asked at the public inquiry into the scandal about testimony on Read's so-called "obsession" with his pay.

"He certainly did take an interest in his pay, that is absolutely correct, yes," she said. She was asked to elaborate by the counsel for the inquiry on whether Read's focus on pay was "beyond average" or "obsessive".

"I would have said considering the background we were operating in, I would have considered it a highly sensitive matter, [with a] need to be more circumspect," she said.

"Nick Read did ask about his pay and bonus opportunity more than I might have expected." In February, it emerged that Henry Staunton, the former chair of the Post Office, twice asked the government for Read's pay to be doubled.