The public inquiry into the Post Office scandal has found that bosses "knew or should have known" the Horizon computer system was faulty over the period when hundreds of postmasters were wrongly accused of taking money from their own tills.
So what? It is no small task to get to the bottom of the most widespread miscarriage of justice in UK history. The inquiry took three years, 298 witnesses, and 2.2 million pages of documents. In its first findings, published on Tuesday, the human impact cuts through everything.
- At least 13 people may have ended their lives after being accused of wrongdoing.
- A further 59 people told the inquiry that they considered taking their own lives.
- More than 10,000 people are estimated to have been affected by the scandal.
Rewind. In 1999, the Post Office began rolling out the Horizon computer system to branches across the UK. Some employees of Fujitsu knew in advance that its system could produce incorrect losses or gains. Postmasters, who are responsible for individual post offices, complained that the system was spitting out false information. But the report found that "for all practical purposes" the Post Office "maintained the fiction that its data was always accurate".
Result. Between 1999 and 2015, roughly a thousand subpostmasters were convicted of stealing from their branches. Most prosecutions were carried out privately by the Post Office, which the report found had relied on incorrect Horizon data to prove actual losses had occurred that "could only be explained by theft, false accounting or fraud".
Fallout. These convictions left behind a trail of suffering that included public abuse, divorce, bankruptcy, alcoholism and serious mental illness. Some postmasters served jail sentences then struggled to rebuild their lives with criminal records.
Fightback. If it wasn't for a 20-year campaign from the former postmaster Alan Bates, justice may never have been served. But this has only been partial, amounting to hundreds of overturned convictions and more than £1 billion paid in compensation.
Fractions. Although that may sound like plenty of money, dozens of postmasters have reportedly been offered just a small portion of their claims due to officials undervaluing lost investments or future earnings. There are still 3,700 claimants yet to receive final settlements from any of the four redress schemes. Nearly 350 have died waiting.
Redress. Tuesday's report was authored by Sir Wyn Williams, a former judge who led the inquiry and made 19 recommendations for the government. These include
- giving free legal advice to claimants;
- forming a public body to provide redress in any future scandal; and
- compensating "close family members" of those affected by the Horizon IT failure.
Resistance. It is this third ask that will make the government, which owns the Post Office, most wary. The public purse already faces further payouts, even before No 10 considers extending redress to loved ones. Only a fifth of the 18,500 letters the Post Office sent to postmasters to make them aware of the compensation scheme have received responses so far.
Response. The Post Office minister Gareth Thomas said he was "very sympathetic" to the recommendations, with a number requiring "careful consideration". The business secretary Jonathan Reynolds said the government would "promptly respond" in Parliament.
Reality. They will need to confront the stories of people such as Millie Castleton, who was eight when her father was falsely accused of theft. She was bullied verbally and physically, suffered depression as a teenager, then dropped out of university after developing anorexia.
Lasting effects. "That nagging voice in my head still says ugly things sometimes," Castleton said. "It still tells me that my past and my family's struggle will define me, that it will be a branding on my skin forever. Broken, thief or liar."
What we don't know is who will foot the overall blame. A police investigation is ongoing and the second half of the report will deal with accountability. It is likely to put scrutiny on
- politicians, who waited for decades to take meaningful action;
- Fujitsu, which has never paid out any compensation to victims; and
- the Post Office, which even now is using an upgraded version of the Horizon software.
What's more… Sir Wyn Williams said his working assumption had been that the current Horizon system was more robust than earlier versions. He wrote on Tuesday that "these assumptions may no longer be wholly justified". Something, he said, for a later volume.
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