The Post Office scandal: What is the Horizon Inquiry?

The public outcry following the ITV drama on the Post Office Scandal has resulted in pressure on the Government. However, over the last two years, an inquiry has been going on in the background.

The Horizon IT system was first introduced into Post Offices in 1999 but it began to create ongoing accounting issues for sub-postmasters up and down the country.

By 2009, prosecution, convictions and prison sentences were mounting up, and a small group began their fight for justice. During this time, journalists including the BBC, Private Eye, Computer Weekly and freelancer Nick Wallis continued to cover the story — but it took until 2015 for Post Office prosecutions to stop.

Two years later, 555 sub-postmasters, known as the group litigation order, launched legal action. In 2019, a High Court judge issued a landmark ruling in their favour, stating that Horizon contained “bugs, errors and defects”.

The Post Office agreed to pay out £57.7m in a settlement.

In the same year, former chief executive Paula Vennells was appointed a CBE in the honours system. But by this stage, political pressure was building and then-Prime Minister Boris Johnson committed to holding a public inquiry in February 2020 – and the inquiry launched that September.

Government ministers announced last year that every wrongly convicted sub-postmaster will be offered £600,000 in compensation, or can negotiate for more. Anyone eligible can claim a £163,000 ‘interim payment’ while their final settlements are processed.

The Post Office Horizon IT inquiry is led by retired High Court judge Sir Wyn Williams, with a team of lawyers which includes Julian Blake from 11KBW and Jason Beer KC from 5 Essex Chambers.

Sir Williams was tasked with making sure there is a public summary of the failings which occurred with the Horizon IT system at the Post Office leading to the suspension, termination of sub-postmasters’ contracts, prosecution and conviction of sub-postmasters.

Sir Williams will draw on findings made by Mr Justice Fraser in the Bates and others v Post Office Limited group litigation, which the full decision can be viewed here.

The inquiry will look to establish a clear account of the implementation and failings of the system over its lifetime (a period of over 20 years).

It kicked off in November 2021 and is set to run until the spring or summer of this year. It was split up into seven different phases, including human impacts, operations, action against sub-postmasters and governance.

However, during phase four, which was being held last Summer, Sir Williams had to postpone the inquiry and call a disclosure hearing after it was discovered that thousands of documents were not disclosed by the Post Office.

The Post Office’s legal advisers were in hot water, as a partner from City law firm Herbert Smith Freehills was called to give evidence during this hearing.

It was revealed at the hearing that the first stage of the document review process for the Post Office inquiry was carried out by HSF’s alternative legal services (ALS) teams, which were primarily made up of law graduates in Belfast, Johannesburg and Australia.

Sir Williams said in July that all future requests for evidence would carry a notice under section 21 of the Inquiries Act 2005 which carries a threat of criminal sanction.

This came after it was announced in June that HSF was going to be dropped as the Post Office legal advisers and replaced by Burges Salmon and Fieldfisher.

It was not the first time the Post Office switched firms its external law firms, as HSF took over from Womble Bond Dickinson after it was dropped.

The inquiry was hit with more disclosure failures in November of last year as there were problems locating approximately 363,000 emails. The disclosure failures have caused delays to the inquiry timetable.

The inquiry was holding further disclosure hearing this week, based off the evidence from the Post Office, HFS and big four firm KPMG revealed process failings and potentially “deeper rooted problems” relating to disclosure. The inquiry heard evidence from a partner at the Post Office’s external law firm, Burges Salmon on Friday.

As with all inquiries, the public can follow the hearings as this inquiry live streams the hearings on its YouTube channel, which can be found here. The hearings are also open to the public to attend at Aldwych House in London, but in some cases, it is subjected to registration due to capacity issues.