Ex-Post Office boss Paula Vennells stripped of CBE

Former Post Office boss Paula Vennells has been formally stripped of her CBE for "bringing the honours system into disrepute", according to the Cabinet Office.

Ms Vennells said last month she would hand back her title following the Horizon IT scandal.

Hundreds of sub-postmasters were prosecuted based on faulty data between 1999 and 2015.

Some people went to prison while many were financially ruined.

More than a million people had signed a petition calling for Ms Vennells to be stripped of her CBE before she announced she would be handing it back.

At the time, Ms Vennells, who was Post Office chief executive between 2012 and 2019, said she had "listened" to the sub-postmasters and others calling for her to return her CBE.

"I am truly sorry for the devastation caused to the sub-postmasters and their families, whose lives were torn apart by being wrongly accused and wrongly prosecuted as a result of the Horizon system," she said.