Post Office scandal victims call for ‘the truth’ as next phase of inquiry begins

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The next phase of the UK Post Office Horizon public inquiry will resume this week, marking the penultimate chapter of an independent probe into one of the country’s biggest miscarriages of justice.

The inquiry was set up to establish independently a clear record of events and accountability of the people involved, as well as the true toll to the sub-postmaster victims involved.

The latest stage of the inquiry, beginning on Tuesday, will focus on the role company executives, government ministers and figures from Fujitsu played in handling the cases of dozens of sub-postmasters.

More than 900 sub-postmasters were convicted in cases involving data from Fujitsu’s faulty Horizon IT system following its introduction in 1999, including more than 700 brought by the Post Office itself.

Sub-postmasters told the Financial Times they wanted the inquiry to settle on the “truth” and help end decades of legal wrangling that had seen many sub-postmasters die while awaiting redress and justice.

“It will be interesting to see the lawyers’ advice to executives,” said Lee Castleton, a former sub-postmaster in east Yorkshire, who was left bankrupt following claims by the Post Office he had stolen £26,000. Castleton was exonerated following the 2019 High Court case.

“Who gave the OK to try to outspend us and deny justice? I can’t wait,” he added.

Christopher Head, once Britain’s youngest sub-postmaster, said the inquiry needed to help ensure the “right people” were held to account rather than individuals being scapegoated.

Vijay Parekh was imprisoned for six months after he was accused of stealing tens of thousands of pounds. His conviction was overturned in 2021. “We got prosecuted and sent down, why can’t they be dealt with the same way,” he said.

The probe, headed by retired judge Sir Wyn Williams since 2020, has so far taken evidence from dozens of witnesses who have attested to widespread failures by the state-owned Post Office in its pursuit of sub-postmasters for account shortfalls.

The inquiry will now hear from a roster of witnesses beginning with Alan Bates, the former sub-postmaster turned lead campaigner, who will appear at Aldwych House in London this week.

Bates was the lead claimant in a 2019 High Court case, which concluded several “bugs, errors and defects” meant there was a “material risk” Horizon was to blame for the faulty data used in Post Office prosecutions.

He was also the subject of an ITV drama that aired in January, Mr Bates vs The Post Office, which triggered public outcry and forced ministers into action.

After months of legal wrangling and delays, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak moved swiftly to announce the government would exonerate victims of the Horizon affair en masse through legislation and offer those affected tens of thousands of pounds in compensation. “We will make sure the truth comes to light, rewrite the wrongs of the past,” Sunak told MPs.

Paula Vennells, Post Office chief executive between 2012 and 2019, will also give testimony. She has come under fire for her decision to spend millions of pounds to litigate despite the business being aware of a number of issues with Horizon.

Vennells handed back her CBE in January after Sunak called for a review into whether she should be stripped of the honour, while MPs are assessing whether to reprimand her for misleading parliament when giving evidence in 2015.

Former postal affairs ministers including Liberal Democrat leader Ed Davey and Labour’s campaign chief Pat McFadden will also give evidence on their knowledge of the affair.

Mike Schwarz, a lawyer acting for sub-postmasters, said that the inquiry would consider possible culpability and make for a “difficult experience” for any executive who knew what was going wrong and failed to act.

“[The inquiry] may even shed a light on their motives — personal career advancement, money or a misguided loyalty to an institution,” he said. “I anticipate that there will be a lot of finger pointing and denials.”

The last phase of the inquiry, which concluded in February, highlighted the pressure investigators applied on sub-postmasters to seek confessions and the extent to which they isolated victims by denying any faults with Horizon.

One of the key pieces of evidence to come to light since was a 2017 report by auditors Deloitte, which was not disclosed in the 2019 High Court case. It found more than a dozen examples where branch losses could be caused by errors or possible remote tampering.

“They [the Post Office] knew enough to mediate this at the outset and could have saved everyone a fortune,” said Patrick Green KC, who acted for sub-postmasters in the 2019 case.

The issue of remote access is key to the postmasters’ defence, who claimed they could not be held solely responsible for accounting losses as records could be altered by third parties, which the Post Office denied.

When it concludes towards the end of the summer, the inquiry will produce recommendations for what further action should be taken. These are expected to be released next year.