08-07-2025
Post Office Horizon scandal drove 13 people to suicide
The Post Office Horizon scandal drove 13 people to suicide, an inquiry has found.
Sir Wyn Williams, the chairman of the public inquiry, said that 'according to their families' 13 people took their own lives, while a further 59 had contemplated suicide and 10 attempted it.
The Post Office scandal saw sub-postmasters across the country wrongfully prosecuted after Fujitsu's faulty Horizon software incorrectly recorded shortfalls on their accounts between 1999 and 2015.
In a 162-page report, published on Tuesday, Sir Wyn said 'it seems likely that approximately 1,000' people were prosecuted and convicted during the 16-year period 'based on Horizon evidence'.
Sir Wyn said Post Office bosses knew Fujitsu's Horizon software was faulty but had 'maintained the fiction' that a version of it 'was always, always accurate'.
He also said 'wholly unacceptable behaviour' had been perpetrated by 'a number of individuals employed by and/or associated with the Post Office and Fujitsu' and the institutions themselves 'from time to time'.
Since the inquiry began hearing evidence in February 2022, many witness accounts have suggested that certain senior and junior members of the Post Office had knowledge of bugs, errors and defects in the system.
However, Tuesday's report marks a landmark moment, as it is the first time the chairman of the inquiry has said that this was the case. While Sir Wyn cannot determine criminal actions, a criminal investigation is already being conducted in parallel to the inquiry.
Last month, the Metropolitan Police said it was investigating more than 45 individuals, with seven formally identified as main suspects.
Recommendations put forward by the report included compensating the family members of Horizon victims, Government-funded legal advice and for a restorative justice programme to be set up by the Government, Fujitsu and the Post Office.
The Post Office Horizon IT inquiry, which heard from 298 witnesses and examined close to 2.3 million pages of documents, retired in December.
Witnesses questioned by inquiry counsels included Paula Vennells, the former Post Office chief executive and ordained Anglican priest, and Sir Alan Bates, the campaigner whose fight for justice was portrayed in an ITV drama last year.
Tuesday's report primarily focused on the human impact of the scandal. However, in his introduction Sir Wyn addressed a key question of whether he believed Post Office and Fujitsu bosses had been ignorant of the glitches in the software system at the time of the prosecutions.
The inquiry chairman wrote of how, prior to the rollout of the software, some Fujitsu employees had 'discovered' that a version – Legacy Horizon – was capable of producing data that was false, and specifically 'losses or gains' on branch accounts that were 'illusory rather than real'.
He wrote: 'Although many of the individuals who gave evidence before me were very reluctant to accept it, I am satisfied from the evidence that I have heard that a number of senior and not so senior employees of the Post Office knew or – at the very least should have known – that Legacy Horizon was capable of error as described above.
'Yet, for all practical purposes, throughout the lifetime of Legacy Horizon, the Post Office maintained the fiction that its data was always accurate.'
Sir Wyn then included a footnote, which said he would 'summarise and explain the evidence which justifies this statement' in a later part of his report.
In 2010, Legacy Horizon was replaced by another version of the software frequently known as Horizon Online. However, the vast majority of prosecutions against sub-postmasters within the impacted period were carried out before 2010.
Sir Wyn detailed how this version was also afflicted by 'bugs, errors and defects', which 'had the effect of showing gains and losses in branch and Crown Office accounts'.
Addressing knowledge around problems with this version of the software, Sir Wyn wrote: 'I am satisfied that a number of employees of Fujitsu and the Post Office knew that this was so.'
In another part of the document, he wrote: 'As later volumes of my report will demonstrate, all of these people [impacted postmasters] are properly regarded to be regarded as victims of wholly unacceptable behaviour perpetrated by a number of individuals employed by and/or associated with the Post Office and Fujitsu from time to time and by the Post Office and Fujitsu as institutions.'
In a footnote, he wrote that he had chosen to use the phrase 'wholly unacceptable behaviour' since it was 'apt to describe behaviour which is worthy of condemnation' but did not 'necessarily mean that persons or the Post Office committed crimes'.
Inquiry chairmen are, by law, unable to determine criminal or civil liability.
A large part of Sir Wyn's report also addressed the four compensation schemes set up to redress victims, for which he identified ' around 10,000 claimants '.
However, while more than £1 billion has been paid out so far, many victims are still waiting for their payouts and those with larger claims have repeatedly gone back to demand what they feel they deserve.
One recommendation Sir Wyn gave was that the Government and the Post Office should agree on a definition of 'full and fair' compensation, and this should be followed when deciding the level of compensation to offer.
Sir Alan has repeatedly turned down his offers, which he says have been a fraction of what he has claimed for.
Sir Wyn wrote: 'I am persuaded that in the difficult and substantial claims, on too many occasions, the Post Office and its advisors have adopted an unnecessarily adversarial attitude towards making initial offers which have had the effect of depressing the level at which settlements have been achieved.'
A Post Office spokesman said: 'The inquiry has brought to life the devastating stories of those impacted by the Horizon scandal.
'Their experiences represent a shameful period in our history. Today, we apologise unreservedly for the suffering which Post Office caused to postmasters and their loved ones. We will carefully consider the report and its recommendations.'
