The Great Post Office Trial

In a nutshell what happened?

When individuals are prosecuted for theft and some go to prison, it is not unreasonable for the public to assume that those individuals were corrupt and dishonest. Never in your wildest dreams would you think that the prosecuting authority was the one who is corrupt and dishonest. Yet that appears to be the conclusion reached by the Court of Appeal in the ‘Great Post Office Scandal’. We may need to wait for any future prosecutions of Post Office and/or Fujitsu staff to understand the full extent of the wrongdoing by the Post Office. This wrongdoing by the Post Office seems to have occurred on an industrial scale.

Over a period of years, the Post Office prosecuted over 700 (yes, seven hundred) of its subpostmasters. Some went to prison for thefts they did not commit, others were bankrupted by the Post Office. It is said this is the probably the largest miscarriage of justice in UK legal history.

The great scandal of this matter is that the Post Office apparently knew there were problems with the Horizon IT system but denied the problem existed as they did not want negative publicity. The reputation of the Post Office now lies in tatters – how utterly misguided could senior Post Office managers and directors have been, to think that the truth would one day not emerge.

There are individuals at the Post Office and Fujitsu (the maker of the error prone Horizon IT system) whose actions and sworn witness statements are now being reviewed by the CPS on the orders of Mr Justice Fraser in a previous trial. On the evidence now available in the public domain, there is a case to explore if some Post Office or Fujitsu staff may have knowingly perverted the course of justice (Note 1 below).

Books will be written about this scandal. It is to be hoped that a blockbuster film may be produced that will lay bare the facts of this travesty to the wider public. The tragedy though is the reality that the scandal has seen lives ruined. Many have been wrongly imprisoned, some bankrupted and several have died before their good name was exonerated of crimes for which they were unjustly convicted. One subpostmaster committed suicide.

I, and many other accountants, have watched the trials of subpostmaster unfold. We have known in our guts that something was fundamentally wrong even though we did know the root cause of what was wrong. An independent report was written by forensic accountants, Second Sight, but the Post Office refused to accept its conclusions. It was clear that the Horizon system did appear faulty. As subpostmaster after subpostmaster was convicted, it was hoped that one day justice would be done and now thankfully it is being done (but proper compensation is yet to be agreed).

Private Eye wrote an excellent Special Report on the scandal. The report includes a Hall of Shame of those culpable including ministers of the Crown.

The fantastic BBC Sounds podcast by Nick Wallis  BBC Sounds – The Great Post Office Trial – Available Episodes is well worth listening to in full. It gives a full understanding of the extraordinary story of a decade-long battle with the Post Office, fought by their own subpostmasters. It has been called the greatest miscarriage of justice in UK legal history.

The Computer Weekly timeline of the scandal (in Note 2 at the foot of this blog) shows just how extensive and staggering the scandal has been.

Why did the scandal happen?

When a disaster happens, it is rarely the fault of just one person; that is certainly the case here. There appear to be number of factors that caused this scandal to happen and for it to go on for so long:

• The Post Office is its own prosecuting authority. It flies in the face of justice for an organisation to be its own prosecuting authority. In this case, the Post Office itself prosecuted subpostmasters for failings of the Post Office. It must be stripped of this power.
• Those in Government who oversee the Post Office and in particular the Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy who should have held the Post Office to account, failed in their oversight. A Government inquiry into the Horizon IT issues has been set up (although many say this is inadequatre as it lacks teeth).
• The Post Office knew of bugs and errors in the Horizon IT system but hid them from the defence when prosecuting subpostmasters. There was a cover up of Horizon errors.
• The Post Office said that the Horizon IT system could only be accessed in the local subpostoffice. It said that there was no head office nor Fujitsu access to the Horizon system in the local post office. That is untrue and appears it was known to be untrue by the Post Office. Fujitsu IT staff at their office made numerous changes to iron our flaws. It would be appear that it was these changes that caused the discrepancies.
• There was insufficient training of subpostmasters in the Horizon system.
• When errors appeared and subpostmasters contacted the Post Office help desk they were advised to admit to false accounting to avoid going to prison. By admitting false accounting, they avoided prison but had a criminal record despite being innocent.
• When subpostmasters asked the Post Office if other subpostmasters had had issues with their Horizon system, the Post Office lied and said that no other subpostmaster had problems.
• No one (except the subpostmasters who were ignored) seemed to ask ‘Where did the money go that was stolen?’ Given the sums involved some money would have been found as unexplained wealth, foreign holidays etc in the hands of at least some subpostmasters. It appeared that every penny of the stolen money completely vanished. No one at the Post Office thought that strange.
• Further, some subpostmasters asked the Post Office what was the subpostmasters’ motive for the theft? The subpostmasters were building successful businesses – why would they jeopardise that?
• The subpostmasters’ own trade union failed them when the subpostmasters asked for help. The union, and in particular the then General Secretary, appeared to be ‘in cahoots’ with the Post Office to prevent future post office closures. The very body which should have supported the subpostmasters turned against them.

In October 2020, the Post Office finally admits it made mistakes. Post Office apologises in false accounting scandal climbdown | Post Office | The Guardian

What happened in the appeal process and at the Court of Appeal?

Last week, the Court of Appeal overturned the convictions of 39 former subpostmasters who the Government-owned Post Office had blamed for accounting shortfalls. Some were sent to prison and the lives of individuals and their families were ruined.

The total number of convictions overturned so far is 45, with six others overturned at Southwark Crown Court in December, and there could well be more. The Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC), which referred the latest cases to the Court of Appeal, is currently reviewing 22 more cases (and the Scottish CCRC is looking at five).

More than 700 people were prosecuted based on evidence from the Post Office’s Horizon IT system, which has been proved to be contain errors.

In 2019 a damaging High Court judgment slammed the Post Office’s management that blamed its own subpostmasters for mistakes made by its own Horizon computer system.

It is noteworthy that the Court of Appeal judgment criticised the Post Office by concluding that the prosecutions of its subpostmasters were not just incompetence by the Post Office. The prosecutions were carried out despite the Post Office having full knowledge that the defendants could not get a fair trial.

The appeal trials were inevitably complex. The Post Office had admitted that it wrongly prosecuted subpostmasters on the grounds that the computer evidence used in prosecutions was potentially unreliable (“Limb 1”).

However, after a successful request by the barristers for the subpostmasters, an additional limb was accepted by the court as an arguable ground for appeal. “Limb 2”, as it is known, meant the Post Office knew it was not possible for subpostmasters to have a fair trial but prosecuted them anyway, which was an “affront to the public conscience,” according to the Criminal Cases Review Commission (the “CCRC”) or, as the Court of Appeal said in its judgment, “an affront to the conscience of the court”. In effect, this is conduct that undermines the criminal justice system or public confidence in it.

The 39 convictions that were overturned were quashed on both grounds. This throws the spotlight on the Post Office leadership because it is no longer a case of mere incompetence that led to the wrongful prosecutions, but deliberate and intentional strategy by the Post Office. This is of breath-taking seriousness.

The subpostmasters argued, and the Court of Appeal eventually agreed, (despite opposition from the Post Office) that the Limb 2 argument be heard. The subpostmasters said that without that second (Limb 2) ground for appeal, Post Office directors could have argued that the prosecutions were just operational mistakes and not the fault of the CEO and the board. The Court of Appeal decision on Limb 2 appears to say that the whole set of prosecutions relating to Horizon and indeed the Post Office’s overall strategy were an abuse of the courts’ process.

The Post Office was made aware of potential computer errors over many years. Computer Weekly first revealed the scandal in 2009, with the stories of seven subpostmasters. But the Post Office, led by Paula Vennells from 2012 to 2019, consistently denied that there were any errors in the Horizon system (see timeline below of Computer Weekly articles since 2009).

Even in 2015, after an independent report on Horizon by forensic accounting firm Second Sight found serious problems in the system, the Post Office still denied the existence of bugs and problems.

What did the Court of Appeal judges say?

In his damning written judgment, Lord Justice Holroyde, sitting with Mr Justice Picken and Mrs Justice Farbey, said the Post Office, which brought the prosecutions itself, “knew that there were serious issues about the reliability of Horizon”.

He wrote: “The failures of investigation and disclosure were in our judgment so egregious as to make the prosecution of any of the ‘Horizon cases’ an affront to the conscience of the court.

“By representing Horizon as reliable, and refusing to countenance any suggestion to the contrary, POL [Post Office Limited] effectively sought to reverse the burden of proof: it treated what was no more than a shortfall shown by an unreliable accounting system as an incontrovertible loss, and proceeded as if it were for the accused to prove that no such loss had occurred.

“Denied any disclosure of material capable of undermining the prosecution case, defendants were inevitably unable to discharge that improper burden. As each prosecution proceeded to its successful conclusion the asserted reliability of Horizon was, on the face of it, reinforced. Defendants were prosecuted, convicted and sentenced on the basis that the Horizon data must be correct, and cash must therefore be missing, when in fact there could be no confidence as to that foundation.”

Comments after the Court of Appeal judgement

Alan Bates

Alan Bates, of the Justice for Subpostmasters Alliance, said “Government departments were complicit in the 20-year scandal. At no point have officials questioned, at least publicly, why £1billion was paid for a system with known faults.”

James Arbuthnot

Former Conservative MP James Arbuthnot, now Lord Arbuthnot became actively involved in the campaign after one of his constituents was charged. He brought together many MPs whose own constituents had been prosecuted. This Hansard account of a parliamentary debate into the scandal is well worth reading.

Lord Arbuthnot said there was a “culture of denial” within the Post Office. There was a failure in the civil service and of ministers to oversee things properly. Fujitsu, the Japanese firm, which developed Horizon, should foot some of the compensation bill.”

Nick Wallis

Nick Wallis, a BBC journalist who has pursued this story with tenacity, diligence and personal sacrifice for over a decade, reacted to the ruling the Court of Appeal by saying “The Post Office over a period of two decades has almost created a situation whereby people were being prosecuted on an industrial scale. They rolled out what they described as the largest non-military IT in Europe into individual post offices around the country. It didn’t work, it was fundamentally unfit for purpose. It could not add up its own sums and in some cases created accounting discrepancies which subpostmasters were held accountable for.”

Nick went on: “Due to its long legacy, the Post Office has a proximity to state power that is almost unparalleled. The Post Office was able to use its own investigation and prosecution units to bypass the CPS and the police force to prosecute its own employees to the tune of one a week for 14 years. There were 736 successful convictions just using Horizon IT evidence. When the Post Office found out its prosecutions may be unsafe, they covered it up. They went out of their way to say to campaigning MPs and the Justice for the Postmasters’ Alliance that nothing was going wrong with the IT system and there was nothing wrong with their prosecution. They then threw tens of millions of pounds trying to deny the subpostmasters justice.

“They were mendacious in the way they went about denying justice and they colluded with the Government in order to do this, because the Government is 100% shareholder of the Post Office and it has skin in this game. There is a real problem with the accountability in this story, meaning commencing a counter-prosecutions will be tough.” See also this crowdfunding website – Postofficetrial.

What next?

• The subpostmasters will now pursue proper compensation and hundreds of other Post Office convictions may be overturned. Compensation may run to £500m which the Post Office says it doesn’t have. The taxpayer therefore, as 100% owner of the Post Office, would have to pay the compensation bill.
• A full judge-led Public Inquiry is necessary with power to summon witnesses to give evidence under oath. The current Government Inquiry lacks teeth and is inadequate. A judicial review is under way to force the Government to hold a Public Inquiry. The Public Inquiry to hold to account Post Office directors and managers, Government ministers and senior civil servants responsible for Post Office oversight, Fujitsu and the subpostmasters’ trade union. What was the extent of the cover-up?
• Questions should be asked about the role of the accountancy profession and what help the profession might have given. It was well known outside the Post Office that Horizon produced anomalies. It was known that subpostmasters could not get the full picture of transactions as they only had their till rolls to go on. Forensic accountants (‘Second Sight’) were eventually brought in but the Post Office obfuscated their work.
• What was the role of the auditors to the Post Office (PwC with whom I trained) who signed off their accounts? What audit work did PwC do at the subpostoffice branch level? What was their assessment of the Horizon system? The firm will be deeply saddened that the errors in one of their client’s computer systems resulted in the biggest miscarriage of justice in history. ICAEW will no doubt be investigating PwC’s role in the matter.
• A detailed and thorough external evaluation of the Fujitsu Horizon system and its bugs and flaws needs to be undertaken.
• The Police and Crown Prosecution Service to investigate the Post Office and Fujitsu. Charges to be brought against anyone who has committed a criminal offence. Anyone who has perverted the course of justice by giving knowingly false statements to the courts should be prosecuted.
• The Post Office to be stripped of its power to bring its own prosecutions.
• The Post Office board to include enhanced representation from subpostmasters.
• Honours given to Post Office and BEIS employees should be reviewed and consideration given to public recognition of those who fought for justice.
• The Post Office logo to be revised to take account of the injustice. Consideration be given to incorporating a reference to the subpostmasters in the logo. Whilst the Post Office and subpostmasters must in time move on, this miscarriage of justice will become a permanent historical stain. It needs permanent acknowledgement – the usual ‘Under new management’ whitewash is inadequate and would be an affront to the hundreds wrongly convicted.
• A proper system of support to be introduced for subpostmasters which should include accounting expertise. We never want to be in this situation again.
• Consideration be given to partial privatisation of the Post Office with shares given to subpostmasters.

Isabel Hardman in The Spectator draws cogent parallels with the Grenfell fire tragedy and also the Greensill Capital scandal. What lessons can we learn from the Post Office scandal? | The Spectator Isabel argues that when the ordinary ‘little’ people don’t have access to the ‘big’ people who hold the power and influence then grave injustices can occur. (This theme is taken up in a parliamentary debate on 19 March 2020.)

There are lessons for many people involved in this scandal. For those who are unjustly accused, the lesson is perhaps for more obvious help to be available and for the falsely accused never to give up. Subpostmasters are small businesses like thousands of other small businesses up and down the land. Sometimes they need some help. It is so sad that many subpostmasters affected had no one to whom to turn for help. It is hoped that firms like SME Strategies and many similar firms like us, would be able to provide help to small businesses in trouble.

The Great Post Office Scandal is an example of David and Goliath when the small guy fights back. With truth on your side, determination and by getting organised – even the great and powerful will tumble.

David Eaton
07841 215182

david.eaton@smestrategies.co.uk

Note 1

Perjury by a Prosecution Witness

Proceedings against a prosecution witness for perjury will depend on an assessment of the material effect of the perjured evidence. If a wrongful conviction is believed to have occurred because of the perjured evidence, a prosecution should follow, unless there are exceptional circumstances. If the witness has lied to protect his or her own interests rather than with an intent to pervert the course of justice, a prosecution may be unnecessary.

Public Justice Offences incorporating the Charging Standard | The Crown Prosecution Service (cps.gov.uk)

Note 2

Timeline of the scandal

This is the staggeringly long Computer Weekly timeline of the Post Office Horizon scandal since they first reported on it in 2009. All credit goes to Computer Weekly for their tenacity in following and reporting on the scandal as it unfolded.

• May 2009: Bankruptcy, prosecution and disrupted livelihoods – postmasters tell their story.
• September 2009: Postmasters form action group after accounts shortfall.
• November 2009: Post Office theft case deferred over IT questions.
• February 2011: Post Office faces legal action over alleged accounting system failures.
• October 2011: 85 subpostmasters seek legal support in claims against Post Office computer system.
• June 2012: Post Office launches external review of system at centre of legal disputes.
• January 2013: Post Office admits Horizon system needs more investigation.
• January 2013: Post Office announces amnesty for Horizon evidence.
• January 2013: Post Office wants to get to bottom of IT system allegations.
• June 2013: Investigation into Post Office accounting system to drill down on strongest cases.
• July 2013: Post Office Horizon system investigation reveals concerns.
• October 2013: End in sight for subpostmaster claims against Post Office’s Horizon accounting system.
• October 2013: Former Lord Justice of Appeal Hooper joins Post Office Horizon investigation.
• November 2013: 150 subpostmasters file claims over “faulty” Horizon accounting system.
• September 2014: Fresh questions raised over Post Office IT system’s role in fraud cases.
• December 2014: MPs blast Post Office over IT system investigation and remove backing.
• December 2014: Why MPs lost faith in the Post Office’s IT investigation, but vowed to fight on.
• December 2014: MPs to debate subpostmaster IT injustice claims.
• December 2014: MP accuses Post Office of acting “duplicitously” in IT investigation.
• January 2015: MPs force inquiry into Post Office subpostmaster mediation scheme.
• January 2015: Post Office faces grilling by MPs over Horizon accounting system.
• February 2015: Post Office CIO will talk to any subpostmaster about IT problems, promises CEO.
• March 2015: Post Office ends working group for IT system investigation day before potentially damaging report.
• March 2015: MPs seek reassurance over Post Office mediation scheme.
• March 2015: Retiring MP aims to uncover truth of alleged Post Office computer system problems.
• April 2015: Post Office failed to investigate account shortfalls before legal action, report claims.
• April 2015: Criminal Courts Review Commission set to review subpostmasters’ claims of wrongful prosecution.
• May 2015: IT system related to subpostmaster prosecutions under review by CCRC.
• June 2015: Post Office looking to replace controversial Horizon system with IBM, says MP.
• July 2015: Campaigners call for independent inquiry into Post Office Horizon IT system dispute.
• October 2015: James Arbuthnot takes Post Office IT fight to House of Lords.
• November 2015: The union that represents Post Office subpostmasters has warned of a problem with the Horizon accounting system.
• November 2015: An email from Post Office IT support reveals a problem with the Horizon system and supporting processes that could lead to accounting errors.
• November 2015: Group litigation against Post Office being prepared in Horizon dispute.
• February 2016: Post Office faces group litigation over Horizon IT as subpostmasters fund class action.
• June 2016: Post Office chairman Tim Parker says there would be “considerable risk” associated with changing its Horizon computer system.
• November 2016: The legal team hired by a group of subpostmasters will take their case to the next stage.
• January 2017: The group action against the Post Office that alleges subpostmasters have been wrongly punished for accounting errors gets green light from the High Court of Justice.
• March 2017: 1,000 subpostmasters apply to join IT-related group litigation against Post Office.
• April 2017: Investigation into claims of miscarriages of justice in relation to a Post Office accounting system has appointed a forensic accountant firm.
• May 2017: Hundreds of subpostmasters have applied to join IT-related legal action since March.
• July 2017: Post Office defence in computer system legal case due this week.
• August 2017: Campaigners submit initial evidence in group litigation against Post Office over controversial Horizon IT system.
• October 2017: Subpostmasters’ group action against the Post Office reaches an important milestone.
• November 2017: An end is in sight for subpostmasters’ campaign against alleged wrongful prosecution, which they blame on a faulty computer system.
• November 2017: The High Court judge managing the subpostmasters versus Post Office legal case over an allegedly faulty computer system tells legal teams to cooperate.
• January 2018: Forensic investigation into Post Office IT system at centre of legal case nears completion.
• April 2018: Criminal Cases Review Commission forensic examination of the IT system at the centre of a legal case against the Post Office has raised further questions.
• May 2018: Post Office branches unable to connect to Horizon computer system for several hours after morning opening time.
• October 2018: After over a decade of controversy, next week marks the beginning of a court battle between subpostmasters and the Post Office.
• November 2018: Case against Post Office in relation to allegedly faulty computer system begins in High Court.
• November 2018: High Court case in which subpostmasters are suing the Post Office has revealed a known problem with a computer system at the core of the dispute.
• November 2018: A High Court trial, where subpostmasters are suing the Post Office for damages caused by an allegedly faulty IT system, ends second week.
• November 2018: Post Office director admits to Horizon errors and not sharing details with subpostmaster network.
• November 2018: The High Court trial in which subpostmasters are suing the Post Office has reached an important stage.
• December 2018: CCRC may hold off subpostmaster decision until after Post Office Horizon trial.
• December 2018: Court case where subpostmasters are suing the Post Office set to span at least four trials and extend into 2020.
• January 2019: Subpostmasters’ campaign group attacks Post Office CEO Paula Vennells’ New Year honour amid ongoing court case.
• January 2019: Thousands of known errors on controversial Post Office computer system to be revealed.
• March 2019: Tech under spotlight at High Court in second subpostmasters versus Post Office trial.
• March 2019: Post Office considered Horizon IT system “high-risk”, court told.
• March 2019: CCRC watching Post Office Horizon trial closely.
• March 2019: Judge rules that Post Office showed “oppressive behaviour” in response to claimants accused of accounting errors they blamed on Horizon IT system.
• March 2019: Post Office “lacked humanity” in the treatment of subpostmasters, says peer.
• March 2019: A High Court judge heard that the Post Office did not investigate a computer system error that could cause losses, despite being offered evidence.
• March 2019: The Post Office legal team in the case brought by more than 500 subpostmasters has called for the judge to be recused after questioning his impartiality.
• March 2019: A senior civil servant asked the Post Office to repay public money it had wrongly allocated to paying legal costs.
• April 2019: Subpostmaster claimants’ legal team makes application for the Post Office to pay millions of pounds of costs associated with trial.
• April 2019: Post Office to appeal judgment from first Horizon trial.
• April 2019: The Post Office’s claim that the judge overseeing the case concerning its controversial Horizon IT system was biased has been dismissed.
• April 2019: MP questions government over Post Office Horizon case.
• April 2019: Government says no conflict of interest in trial despite Post Office chairman’s dual role.
• May 2019: The Court of Appeal has refused the Post Office’s application to appeal a major decision in the Horizon IT trial.
• May 2019: The Post Office has applied for permission to appeal judgments from the first trial in its IT-related legal battle with subpostmasters.
• May 2019: The judge in the Post Office Horizon trial has ordered the organisation to pay the legal costs of its courtroom adversaries, and refused to give permission to appeal a major judgment.
• June 2019: Post Office asks Court of Appeal for permission to appeal judgment in first Horizon trial.
• July 2019: The Post Office has admitted that some subpostmasters are at risk of accounts not balancing due to an error it does not understand.
• July 2019: Problem revealed during High Court trial left subpostmaster with £18,000 surplus after IT system failed to register full amount of cash scanned in.
• August 2019: Subpostmasters suffering slow running and frozen terminals while Post Office searches for a fix to issues apparently caused by a software update.
• August 2019: The Post Office has fixed the latest problems with its Horizon system, affecting hundreds of branches.
• October 2019: A High Court judgment for a trial that focused on the Post Office’s IT system at the centre of a multimillion-pound litigation will be announced early next month.
• November 2019: The Court of Appeal has rejected a Post Office application to appeal judgments made in its multimillion-pound battle with subpostmasters over IT system failures.
• November 2019: Peer calls for clear-out of Post Office board after Court of Appeal confirms major court defeat.
• December 2019: The Post Office has settled its long-running legal dispute with subpostmasters, and will pay £57.75m in damages.
• December 2019: Subpostmasters ended their legal battle with the Post Office at the optimal time, according to the lawyer that managed the High Court action.
• December 2019: Subpostmasters proved right on IT system failures as calls for full public inquiry mount.
• December 2019: Criminal Courts Review Commission to review Horizon judgment “swiftly”.
• December 2019: National Federation of Subpostmasters cries foul after court ruling on controversial computer system.
• December 2019: Former Post Office CEO apologises to subpostmasters over Horizon scandal.
• December 2019: Call for former Post Office CEO to step down from public roles after IT court battle lost.
• January 2020: Fujitsu must face scrutiny following Post Office Horizon trial judgment.
• January 2020: Subpostmaster group calls for government to pay legal costs for Horizon trial.
• January 2020: Why subpostmasters are calling on the government to pay Horizon trial costs.
• January 2020: Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy says it did not make decisions in the Post Office’s recent court battle.
• January 2020: Government should not be allowed to dismiss subpostmasters’ claims over Horizon IT scandal.
• January 2020: Police sent information about potential Fujitsu staff perjury in subpostmaster prosecutions.
• January 2020: Prosecutions are a significant step closer to being sent to the Court of Appeal as Criminal Courts Review Commission forms a group of commissioners to review them.
• January 2020: Alan Bates: The “details man” the Post Office paid the price for ignoring.
• February 2020: The government has refused to pay the huge legal costs subpostmasters incurred in their battle with the government-owned Post Office, which they won.
• February 2020: Members of Parliament seeking a public inquiry into the Post Office Horizon scandal face huge challenges, but pressure and time could force justice.
• February 2020: Calls for inquiry into Post Office IT scandal increase in Parliament, with cross-party support.
• February 2020: Care Quality Commission to review concerns over Paula Vennells’ appointment after they were raised by a former NHS consultant psychiatrist.
• February 2020: Government admits it was too passive managing Post Office as parliamentary pressure builds.
• February 2020: Minister says Post Office IT experts misled the government when it asked questions about subpostmasters’ concerns over Horizon IT system.
• March 2020: Boris Johnson commits to “getting to the bottom of” Post Office Horizon IT scandal.
• March 2020: Boris Johnson’s commitment to inquiry into Post Office scandal in doubt.
• March 2020: MPs call on PM to commit to full public inquiry into Post Office Horizon IT scandal.
• March 2020: Those who did not play by the rules in Post Office Horizon scandal “should face prosecution”.
• March 2020: MPs told to hold to account those responsible for Post Office Horizon IT scandal.
• March 2020: The Post Office has sparked anger with secret settlements with subpostmasters outside the recent legal action against it.
• March 2020: Labour MP Karl Turner tells Computer Weekly that the Post Office Horizon scandal is the most grotesque version of predatory capitalism he has ever seen.
• March 2020: MP Kevan Jones has warned a government minister not to repeat the mistakes of predecessors in relation to the Post Office Horizon IT scandal.
• March 2020: Criminal Cases Review Commission to use Microsoft Teams to ensure review of subpostmaster prosecutions is held on time.
• March 2020: Post Office postpones subpostmaster compensation scheme amid Covid-19 crisis.
• March 2020: Meeting reviewing subpostmaster applications to appeal criminal prosecutions moves into second day.
• March 2020: Subpostmaster prosecutions to be considered by Court of Appeal for miscarriages of justice.
• March 2020: How subpostmasters made legal history with biggest referral of potential miscarriages of justice.
• April 2020: Met Police examines information about evidence given in court by Fujitsu staff on the Horizon IT system.
• May 2020: Subpostmasters who had their lives ruined by the Post Office’s faulty IT system have received their damages after a High Court victory.
• May 2020: A senior Post Office executive at the centre of an IT scandal, who tried to mislead a High Court judge in relation to it, has left the organisation without fanfare despite many years of service.
• May 2020: Post Office re-examines hundreds of prosecutions that could have resulted from faults in Horizon IT system.
• June 2020: A campaign group representing subpostmasters wrongly prosecuted for theft and false accounting by the Post Office is raising money to help clear the names of victims of the scandal.
• June 2020: Subpostmasters to force scrutiny of government’s role in Post Office IT scandal.
• June 2020: The Criminal Cases Review Commission sends 47 more subpostmaster cases to Court of Appeal and asks government to review private prosecution powers.
• June 2020: Select committee chair writes to former Post Office CEO demanding answers over her role in IT scandal.
• June 2020: The government has been accused of launching a review that fails in getting to the bottom of one of the biggest miscarriages of justice in UK history.
• June 2020: Subpostmasters will not cooperate with government review into IT scandal.
• June 2020: The government’s proposed review of the Post Office IT scandal has received a further setback as forensic accountants join subpostmasters in refusing to back it.
• June 2020: Call for government review of Post Office Horizon scandal to have the power to force individuals to give evidence under oath.
• June 2020: Subpostmasters seeking justice in the Post Office Horizon IT scandal are regaining momentum in Parliament.
• June 2020: Healthcare regulator will be discussing concerns about former NHS boss chairing an NHS trust at an upcoming meeting.
• June 2020: Second Sight is working with law firm in appeals by subpostmasters against criminal convictions in Horizon IT scandal.
• June 2020: Post Office and Fujitsu blame each other for many of the failings in the Horizon IT scandal that wrecked lives.
• June 2020: Parliamentary Justice Committee to hold short inquiry into the rules and regulations surrounding private organisations’ ability to initiate criminal proceedings.
• July 2020: Victims of the Post Office Horizon IT scandal need to raise thousands of pounds in a week or those responsible for their suffering will avoid scrutiny.
• July 2020: The government is set to face scrutiny over its involvement in the Post Office Horizon IT scandal, described as one of the biggest miscarriages of justice in modern UK history.
• September 2020: The government repeats that it won’t pay victims’ legal costs and confirms review into the scandal will not have the power to call witnesses.
• September 2020: Subpostmasters still not being told about all the known errors in the controversial Post Office branch accounting and retail system that they use.
• October 2020: The Post Office has chosen not to contest 44 out of 47 appeals, meaning most are likely to have their names cleared, but others still face a Court of Appeal battle for justice.
• October 2020: MPs are demanding the government holds a full statutory public inquiry into the Post Office IT scandal.
• October 2020: NHS regulator continues enquiries about the appointment of former Post Office CEO at Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust as more damning details emerge.
• October 2020: Government minister met with former subpostmaster online in an attempt to get victims of the Post Office Horizon scandal involved in government review.
• October 2020: The Post Office is focusing urgently on fixing an IT error suffered by a subpostmaster amid the ongoing IT scandal.
• October 2020: Labour politicians are calling for the government to give the Post Office Horizon scandal inquiry the power to force witnesses to give evidence if they don’t cooperate.
• October 2020: Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust has asked for external review of its process when appointing controversial executive.
• November 2020: Government faces scrutiny of its handling of the Post Office IT scandal that destroyed subpostmasters’ lives and livelihoods.
• November 2020: Post Office branches offline during busy business hours after suffering an IT error that the Post Office said related to IT from supplier Fujitsu.
• November 2020: Fujitsu is refusing to explain what caused a national system outage in Post Office branches last week, despite the Post Office confirming the issue was the fault of the supplier.
• November 2020: The Metropolitan Police opens criminal investigation into Fujitsu staff who gave evidence in trials of subpostmasters wrongly prosecuted and even imprisoned for financial crimes.
• November 2020: Post Office criticised over vagueness of its explanation of the cause of a UK-wide IT failure that saw subpostmasters unable to do business.
• November 2020: Post Office says planned firmware update caused the problem that left branches unable to do business for 90 minutes.
• November 2020: Court documents reveal the names of the Fujitsu employees under investigation for potentially providing misleading information in criminal trials.
• November 2020: The government allowed the Post Office to ‘run amok’ and destroy lives, says complaint to Parliamentary Ombudsman.
• November 2020: Campaigning politician demands access to documents that could prove that the Post Office lied.
• December 2020: Government denies responsibility for the abuse inflicted on subpostmasters by the Post Office over faulty IT system.
• December 2020: CEO at the centre of the scandal that saw innocent people bankrupted and some sent to prison steps down from NHS role as pressure for her resignation grows.
• December 2020: History made as subpostmasters wrongly prosecuted in Horizon IT scandal have convictions quashed.
• December 2020: The appointment of a former Post Office executive, who tried to mislead a judge, in the Football Association of Wales has been questioned by an MP.
• December 2020: Court of Appeal indicates subpostmasters can pursue appeal route that could do more damage to Post Office’s reputation.
• January 2021: NHS trust defends its director appointment process following an external review of its recruitment of former Post Office CEO Paula Vennells.
• January 2021: Lawyers call for changes to digital evidence rule that made it easier for the Post Office to ‘bamboozle courts’ and make subpostmasters pay a heavy price for its IT failings.
• January 2021: The Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC) has referred four more subpostmasters’ criminal convictions to appeal, as part of the biggest miscarriage of justice in modern UK history.
• February 2021: A former senior developer who worked for Fujitsu on the Post Office IT system that led to subpostmasters being falsely accused of fraud, has claimed bosses knew of fundamental flaws before going live.
• February 2021: Subpostmasters call for Boris Johnson to pause and reshape the government’s Horizon inquiry.
• February 2021: Vote of no confidence in Football Association of Wales boss triggered by recruitment of former Post Office executive who tried to mislead a judge in IT trial.
• March 2021: Government agrees to change private prosecution rules that were abused by the Post Office in its pursuit of subpostmasters wrongly accused of financial crimes.
• March 2021: Subpostmaster victims who have spent millions bringing the Post Office IT scandal to light have received no reply to their concerns from Boris Johnson.
• March 2021: MP condemns department’s ‘bizarre’ rejection of freedom of information request linked to Post Office IT scandal.
• March 2021: Football Association Wales boss steps down after losing confidence motion triggered by appointment of an executive involved in the Post Office IT scandal.
• March 2021: The Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission (SCCRC) is reviewing five cases of potential miscarriage of justice in relation to subpostmaster prosecutions.
• March 2021: Subpostmasters heading to Court of Appeal to clear their names in what is potentially the biggest miscarriage of justice in English legal history.
• March 2021: The Post Office does not have enough money to pay compensation to the subpostmasters it wrongfully prosecuted.
• March 2021: Angela van den Bogerd has left her role at the Football Association of Wales, following criticism of her part in Post Office IT scandal.
• March 2021: Court of Appeal hearing reveals Post Office instructed employees to destroy documents that undermined an insistence that its Horizon computer system was robust.
• March 2021: The Post Office was warned that a former Fujitsu employee had misled courts when giving evidence on its behalf.
• March 2021: Boris Johnson agrees with MP that those responsible for the Post Office Horizon scandal should be brought to book.
• March 2021: Former Post Office chief was paid over £400,000 when she left despite the organisation being involved in what would become the biggest miscarriage of justice in UK history.
• April 2021: The UK government faces a potential judicial review over its Post Office Horizon IT scandal inquiry, after subpostmasters formally wrote to the government seeking one.
• April 2021: The government is listening to calls for changes in how digital evidence is considered in court, as Post Office IT scandal spells out current rule’s inadequacy.
• April 2021: The Post Office’s controversial contract with Fujitsu has been extended another year to help the organisation manage its exit.
• April 2021: The Post Office is to move work done by Fujitsu in-house when its outsourcing contract ends, and is already recruiting IT experts.
• April 2021: The Post Office has revealed the end to its controversial Horizon IT system which, through its errors and the Post Office’s denial of them, caused huge suffering for hundreds of subpostmasters.
• April 2021: The UK government is the only block to fair compensation for subpostmasters who were wrongly punished for accounting shortfalls.
• April 2021: The Court of Appeal has overturned the criminal convictions of 39 subpostmasters who were blamed and punished for accounting shortfalls caused by computer errors.