The Post Office Horizon scandal.  The Post Office which is a government and public owned company has been proven in the High Court to be hiding information regarding the robustness of its IT equipment, treating its staff in 'capricious, arbitrary ways which would not be unfamiliar to a mid-Victorian factory Owner and then seeking to cover it up either with government help or through total incompetence.  The government had a duty to get it resolved as mentioned in National Audit Office and Internal Cross Party government documents regarding ‘Arms length businesses’ controlled by government for which Post Office is one of them.

There are over 550 claimants who completed costly litigation in 2019, 2500+ who have now joined the Historical Shortfall scheme setup by the Post Office and potentially 900+ wrongful convictions meaning this scandal has affected upwards of 3900 people.  Lives were destroyed, businesses lost, homes repossessed, bankruptcies, false imprisonment, families destroyed, health issues and suicides, all down to a total cover up of the truth. 

I was one of these claimants and due to lack of government intervention for which they were responsible for doing we had to find third party funding to bring this to a head.  This means under UK law the cost of funding cannot be recovered from the Post Office and it was originally estimated that claimants would not even recover a tiny fraction of losses incurred.  It took government to step in to do more, but even still it does not go far enough.  Many of those who made the decisions including some directors and senior management remain in place running the business.  The EX CEO Paula Vennells who decided to resign days before the first substantial judgement was released by the High Court in 2019 has since been awarded a CBE, a position in the cabinet office of government and also chairs one of the largest NHS Groups (Imperial NHS).  She was asked to resign from the Cabinet Office, the NHS Trust and we have now seen she has rightly handed back the CBE, why it has taken this long we will never know.  This has taken the focus and political debate time away from the most important topics at hand here which is the overturning of the convictions and full & fair compensation for those affected.  The support of all MP's is continuing as more revelations come to light in the public inquiry, the media frenzy takes hold, the political heat is reaching boiling point and the public anger and their support of Sub Postmasters grows on a daily basis.

We have due to the petition, started to see a small number of the convictions being overturned and a strong voice in the House of Commons enabled the inquiry to be put on a statutory footing that should ensure ALL those responsible are held to account and all those who suffered are compensated for losses that they had no control over due to a failing IT system , draconian unfair contracts and horrific actions by Post Office Ltd and their sole shareholder the government.

The Post Office continued to fight the original High Court litigation even though days before they responded to the claimants pre-court action letter they held a board meeting where they approved a document that stated their Horizon IT system was 'not fit for purpose'.  They then proceeded to spend well over 100 million pounds of taxpayer cash telling the court Horizon was robust, this alone proves they were willing to cover up the truth.  It was later found that in April 2021 at the Court of Appeal Post Office had withheld key documents from the earlier High Court litigation which showed they knew back in 2013 there were potential problems with Horizon and some of the expert witnesses may have given false evidence. Here is an extract of the judgement handed down on the 16th December 2019 :-

“The IT Strategy, which is referred to in this Update Decision Paper, and outlined that “the IT [Horizon] was not fit for purpose” and which was approved in July 2016 by the Post Office Board is, in my judgment, entirely consistent with my conclusions on the evidence. It is not, however, consistent with the Post Office’s response to the claimants’ pre-action letter, or the Defence in the group litigation, or the evidence adduced by the Post Office in the Horizon Issues trial. The Post Office’s solicitors’ response to the pre-action letter is dated 28 July 2016, very lengthy, and states that “the investigations to date have consistently pointed towards human error or dishonest conduct in branches as the most likely cause of shortfalls.” [H 954]

All this was a complete lie and they were willing to allow Postmasters to lose their livelihoods, their families, some their dignity and others their own lives whilst at the same time blowing through millions in taxpayer cash.

We are  now calling on this government to provide ALL victims of this scandal with the FULL and FAIR compensation they are entitled to.  This involves ensuring that all those affected are returned to the position they would have been in had they not encountered the Horizon scandal and compensated for the pain, trauma and suffering they have gone through including their families.  The government rhetoric matches the above but the reality on the ground is very different, they are ignoring forensic expert reports that the government have themselves paid for and again using expensive lawyers to litigate and hollow out every claim.  They cannot say on one hand we are doing all we can to put things right but on the other continue to fight and ignore expert evidence.  Ideally we need an independent body, chaired by a High Court Judge to oversee the entire compensation processes so it is out of the hands of the perpetrators Post Office and government.  At the moment there are independent panels but the guiding principles are set by the government, they are completely flawed and will never restore the Postmasters back to the position they would have been in, never mind actual compensate them for the harms done.

We were also calling for the immediate resignation of Post Office Chairman Tim Parker who was also the Chairman of Her Majesty's Courts and Tribunal service, clearly a conflict of interest, I am pleased to say he did the right thing late last year.  Tim Parker had resided over the disastrous civil litigation where the Post Office was heavily criticised by Justice Fraser, then he oversaw the attempted recusal application of Fraser which was again heavily criticised by Court of Appeal Lord Justice Coulson, and finally he had overseen the Court of Appeal decision.  The judgement described as the most devastating judgment ever handed down by this court.  Over all of this he has allowed the Post Office to burn through over £100 million of taxpayer cash as well as recruiting several legal firms to attempt to defend themselves.  The legal costs to date if you include the original Group Litigation, compensation scheme operating costs, inquiry costs has resulted in an additional legal bill of more than £150m, government has had to provide further subsidy to the Post Office to meet this burden, all whilst the victims are battered into submission.

Your signature will help us put the pressure on government and the relevant minister and Secretary of State so those that have suffered enormously over a 20 year period can get the answers, accountability and justice they rightly deserve and finally move on with their lives.