Mr Read, who is leaving his post in March, will be given the opportunity to defend himself against mounting criticism from other witnesses to the inquiry.

He joined the company in 2019, long after the prosecutions of sub-postmasters finished. But he oversaw the Post Office's response to legal action brought by wronged sub-postmasters and their compensation.

The inquiry heard last week about claims from a whistleblower of a "disgusting" culture at the Post Office that "starts at the top with Nick".

The Post Office Horizon IT scandal led to hundreds of postmasters being wrongly prosecuted for theft and false accounting due to discrepancies caused by IT bugs in the system.

Former chairman Henry Staunton has told the inquiry that the Post Office "didn't fully accept" the rulings made by Justice Fraser, which found that the IT system had been behind the errors.

Post Office chairman Henry Staunton told the inquiry last week that CEO Nick Read was unhappy with his pay and one of Mr Staunton's first acts as chairman was to write to the secretary of state to ask for it to be increased.

At the time in November 2022, Mr Read would have received salary plus compensation of £788,500 in total. He had wanted to increase his total earnings to £1,125,180 - a salary that Mr Staunton admitted was "astonishing".

Mr Staunton told the inquiry: "It was obviously a massive salary increase in a company which wasn't a normal corporate. It was paid for by the public purse".

The request was refused by then-secretary of state Grant Shapps.

Post Office chief executive Nick Read has been at the Post Office for five years. He is due to step down in March 2025 and has taken time away from his role to prepare for the Horizon IT inquiry.

Interim chief operating officer Neil Brocklehurst has been filling in as an acting chief executive.

Mr Read has previously appeared before MPs to defend his management of the Post Office. However in February, the business and trade committee expressed a lack of confidence in his leadership, accusing him of giving misleading evidence.

Over the course of the inquiry and parliamentary hearings, Mr Read's evidence has often clashed with that of former Post Office chairman Henry Stauton.

Mr Read had been investigated over misconduct allegations but an external report, released earlier this year, cleared him of wrongdoing.