What is the Post Office scandal, why were postmasters prosecuted, and what is Horizon? (2024)

A new TV drama has renewed pressure to compensate hundreds of former Post Office workers who were wrongly prosecuted for stealing company money due to an IT error.

More than 700 sub-postmasters and mistresses had their reputations ruined by allegations of theft and false accounting, with many left bankrupt or in prison, as a result of a computer system called Horizon.

Between 1999 and 2015, many people who ran branches were found guilty, and despite years of campaigning, just 93 have had their convictions quashed.

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In 2022 a statutory public inquiry began into what has been described as the "worst miscarriage of justice in recent British legal history", with hearings still under way.

But amid slow compensation payments, a new ITV dramatisation of the scandal, Mr Bates vs The Post Office, has sparked outrage that many of the impacted are yet to get justice.

What is Horizon and how did it trigger a scandal?

The Post Office introduced a new IT system called Horizon, made by the Japanese company Fujitsu, across the country in 1999. It was used to manage transactions, accounts and stocktaking.

Sub-postmasters and mistresses - the staff in charge of branches - soon began noticing shortfalls in company accounts and complained the system was faulty.

No action was taken by the Post Office, so cash shortages of several thousand pounds continued to appear on the accounts of branches nationwide.

Some workers were so concerned they used their own money to balance the books.

In 2000, the Post Office began taking legal action against sub-postmasters using Horizon data as evidence.

By 2014, 736 had been criminally prosecuted, despite the Post Office becoming aware of a fault in 2010.

What happened to the sub-postmasters?

Summarising how the miscarriage of justice has affected its victims, Jason Beer QC, counsel to the public inquiry, said: "Lives were ruined, families were torn apart, families were made homeless and destitute.

"Reputations were destroyed, not least because the crimes of which the men and women were convicted all involved acting dishonestly.

"People who were important, respected and integral part of the local communities that they served were in some cases shunned.

"A number of men and women sadly died before the state publicly recognised that they were wrongly convicted."

The scandal has been linked to at least four suicides.

On the first day of the inquiry, one victim said he would have taken his own life if it wasn't for his family.

Baljit Sethi, 69, ran a post office near Romford, Essex, for 22 years until he was sacked over account shortfalls.

"I was down and out, I contemplated suicide, but I thought no, that's the easy way out, what about my family and my children?," he told the hearing.

"People in our community believed we had been robbing from the Post Office."

Seema Misra was found guilty of stealing £75,000 from the post office she ran in West Byfleet, Surrey.

She was jailed on her son's 10th birthday and told Sky News she only resisted suicide because she was pregnant with another child.

"We had been trying for another baby for seven or eight years, so it should have been the happiest moment for us. Instead, prison was the worst experience of my life," she said.

Other victims have told of marriages breaking down, losing their homes and developing chronic illnesses and addictions.

When did things change?

The sub-postmasters and their supporters have protested their convictions from the beginning, mainly as part of the Justice for Sub-postmasters Alliance campaign group.

Several of them sued the Post Office and when the series of lengthy civil cases came to an end in December 2019, the company agreed to settle with 555 victims.

They agreed on £58m in damages, of which the claimants shared £12m, after legal fees.

Days later a High Court judgment ruled that the Horizon IT system was not fit for purpose and there was a "material risk" of shortfalls appearing on accounts due to "bugs, errors and defects".

This paved the way for the victims' convictions to be reconsidered via the Criminal Cases Review Commission.

By the end of last year, 93 sub-postmasters and mistresses had been cleared of wrongdoing and their criminal records wiped, with 54 convictions upheld, withdrawn, or refused permission to appeal.

In one landmark hearing in April 2022, 39 convictions were quashed in one go, in which the judge ruled the original verdicts were an "affront to the public conscience".

So far, £24m has been paid in compensation to people whose convictions have been overturned.

There are now three separate compensation schemes, with £130m paid out across 2,500 victims so far. The government recently promised a lump sum of £600,000 to each victim to address concerns.

But as well as the slow speed of payments, there has been outrage people have had to pay tax on them, while Post Office bosses have been given £1.6m in bonuses.

This has sparked a petition to strip the former head of the Post Office Paula Vennells of her CBE, which she agreed to hand back on 9 January.

The independent inquiry, which hopes to have heard all evidence by the end of this year, is being held at International Dispute Resolution Centre in central London and chaired by Sir Wyn Williams.

Justice for Sub-postmasters Alliance members have refused to engage with the inquiry, claiming it will slow down the justice process and any compensation payments.

In a statement, Fujitsu, the firm behind Horizon said it has "apologised for its role" in the "suffering" of sub-postmasters.

"Fujitsu is fully committed to supporting the inquiry in order to understand what happened and to learn from it. Out of respect for the Inquiry process, it would be inappropriate for Fujitsu to comment further at this time," it said.

What could happen next?

After the release of Mr Bates vs The Post Office, 50 new potential victims are believed to have approached lawyers.

Viewers' outrage has seen Prime Minister Rishi Sunak condemn the scandal as an "appalling miscarriage of justice".

He confirmed that Justice Secretary Alex Chalk is considering ways of helping to clear the names of those convicted in a blanket move.

Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey is under fire as he intially refused to meet Alan Bates, the subject of the TV show, in his capacity as minister for the Post Office. He did later meet him in 2010. He has since apologised and claimed the Post Office "lied to him".

The Metropolitan Police also confirmed that it is investigating the Post Office over potential fraud offences after the handling of the Horizon IT scandal.