Report.
The Horizon scandal is often described as ‘one of the most widespread miscarriages of
justice in British legal history’, where hundreds of Post Office postmasters, managers
and assistants were wrongly accused of theft and fraud due to faults in the Horizon IT
system.
The Post Office Horizon IT Inquiry is an independent public statutory inquiry, which was
established to gather a clear account of the implementation and failings of the Horizon
IT system at the Post Office over its lifetime.
Since it began, the Inquiry has held 226 days of hearings, 298 witnesses have provided
oral evidence, plus around 274,604 documents have been disclosed.
Through these investigations, the Inquiry has examined:
1.Development and implementation of the Horizon IT system - How the Horizon
IT system was created, tested, and rolled out across Post Office branches.
2.Technical issues and bugs - The extent of known errors in the Horizon system and
how these affected branch accounts.
3.Handling of reported discrepancies - How the Post Office responded when
postmasters reported accounting shortfalls.
4.Legal proceedings against postmasters - The prosecution strategy used by the
Post Office, including evidence gathered and presented.
5.Knowledge and governance - What senior Post Office and Fujitsu executives knew
about system problems and when.
6.Human impact of the Horizon scandal - How individuals were treated by the Post
Office when shortfalls were identified and how it impacted them and their families.
7.Compensation schemes - The adequacy of redress schemes established to
compensate victims.
8.Institutional culture - The organisational culture at the Post Office and if/how that
contributed to the scandal.
9.Government oversight - The role of government departments in their capacity as
Post Office shareholder.
Sir Wyn Williams has published Volume 1 of his final
report, which examines the "disastrous" human impact
of the Horizon scandal and the issue of redress
(compensation).
This builds on Sir Wyn's interim report, which was
published in July 2023.
Through 17 first-hand accounts, Sir Wyn Williams details the scale of the suffering
endured by those affected by the Horizon scandal.
He recounts how some people became seriously ill, struggled with mental health
problems including alcohol addiction, and faced financial impacts including
bankruptcy.
He details how some people experienced reputational impacts or sadly passed away
before receiving compensation.
He also outlines how some people were held liable for a small amount of money
allegedly lost to the Post Office, while others were wrongly imprisoned, describing the
ordeal as “disastrous”.
