Executives from the Post Office and Fujitsu should have been aware that the Horizon IT system was faulty, according to allegations made by employees and MPs.
The independent public inquiry into the UK Post Office Horizon IT system scandal has revealed a systemic failure by the Post Office, Fujitsu, and ICL to disclose or correct known defects in the Horizon system, leading to false accusations and convictions of subpostmasters over nearly two decades.
The inquiry, launched in 2021, found that senior Post Office staff, along with Fujitsu and ICL employees, knew or should have known about the defects causing errors in the Horizon system. Despite this knowledge, they did not disclose or adequately address them, leading to mass wrongful convictions from 1999 to 2015.
The Post Office pursued prosecutions and blamed subpostmasters for theft and accounting shortfalls caused by flaws in the Horizon IT system, despite persistent bugs and errors in the system going back to its introduction in the late 1990s. Evidence emerged from a High Court judgment noting that Horizon system errors caused unexplained shortfalls, prompting a criminal investigation into Fujitsu staff for potentially providing inaccurate testimony in trials against subpostmasters.
Investigations criticized both the Post Office and its technology providers for failing to disclose or even recognizing the extent of the Horizon system’s defects, which led to wrongful prosecutions and convictions. The corporate culture at the Post Office was found to prioritize prosecutions over transparency or justice, with a lack of adequate response to warnings and evidence of system faults.
Despite years in operation, the compensation schemes are still dealing with hundreds of unresolved claims. The human impact of the longstanding miscarriage of justice was profoundly disturbing. The first volume of the report, addressing human cost and redress, was published today.
Sir Wyn, the chair of the inquiry, has recommended ways to improve the compensation schemes and published these recommendations in the first volume of the report. He does not recommend scrapping the compensation schemes but is critical of the roles the Post Office and the government played in developing them and the delays that have occurred.
The second volume of the report, addressing the causes of and establishing accountability for the Horizon scandal, is expected next year. The report is available to read in PDF format. Between 1999 until 2015, around 736 subpostmasters were wrongfully prosecuted and convicted of fraud.
The Horizon system, along with its upgrades, contributed to one of the worst miscarriages of justice in British history. The Post Office began using the Horizon IT system for accounting in 1999. The losses that led to the wrongful convictions were illusory, not real.
Sir Wyn has been critical of the unresolved cases, stating that it is difficult to imagine that they can be settled anytime soon. He is also concerned about the unacceptable behavior by individuals associated with the Post Office and Fujitsu, which led to wrongful convictions of multiple hundreds of people who were victims of this scandal.
This news article is based on the facts presented in the bullet points and aims to provide a clear, straightforward, and easy-to-read account of the Post Office Horizon IT system scandal for a general audience.
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