The statutory public inquiry into the Post Office scandal went comparatively unnoticed for nearly two years, however in that point, these au fait with the case have been shocked on an virtually day by day foundation.
The airing of ITV’s Mr Bates vs the Post Office drama and accompanying documentary in January 2024, finally put the scandal centre stage within the public discourse and it’s now getting the eye it deserves.
Computer Weekly has been following the inquiry because it began hearing evidence in May 2022. Here, we checklist some of the experiences that make important studying for individuals who are comparatively new to the UK’s widest-ever miscarriage of justice.
When initially arrange as a authorities division inquiry with out the facility to name witnesses, there was outrage and accusations of whitewashing. But following strain from subpostmasters and their supporters, the inquiry was put on a statutory footing, with a choose in cost and the facility to name witnesses to present proof.
So far, there have been six phases of the inquiry, chaired by retired choose Wyn Williams. It started with the victims telling their tales. This was adopted in October 2022 by section two, which noticed an investigation into the Horizon IT system, its procurement, design, pilot, roll-out and modifications. Then, initially of 2023, got here section three, with the operation of the Horizon system below the highlight. Phase fourth section, which started listening to proof in July 2023, shone the highlight on the practices of the legal professionals and investigators concerned within the prosecutions of subpostmasters. In April, a mixed section 5 and 6 started and featured administrators, politicians and civil servants who, whether or not intentionally or not, contributed to the cover-up.
Each installment has produced shocking proof that has uncovered barely conceivable malfeasance on the half of a British establishment, as soon as regarded fondly.
Computer Weekly first exposed the scandal in 2009, revealing the tales of seven subpostmasters, and has adopted it carefully ever since.
Inquiry chair Wyn Williams has been listening to proof since May 2022.
Phase one – February 2022
Phase one of the inquiry heard witness statements from the victims of the scandal.
Former subpostmasters, their lives devastated after being held accountable for unexplained accounting, went by the painful expertise of having to relive harrowing durations of their lives.
This was about two years earlier than a dramatisation of their treatment put the Post Office scandal into public discourse and political debate.
When the drama was aired in January 2024, the general public outrage was palpable, however it didn’t reveal something new. What it did reveal was that the written phrase, of which Computer Weekly has written many 1000’s concerning the scandal since 2009, was not sufficient to catch the eye of the general public. The drama did.
The drama was based mostly on actual lives – lives destroyed.
Here are all the recordings of evidence given to the inquiry by victims of the scandal telling their tales.
Phase two – October 2022
The Post Office scandal started with the procurement of Horizon software program within the Nineteen Nineties, after John Major’s authorities agreed to the general public finance initiative (PFI) cope with ICL, later acquired by Fujitsu. Subpostmasters have been promised the system would make their lives simpler.
Automating accounting processes throughout 1000’s of branches was a logical step within the pc age, however the procurement and design of a system that was, on the time, the most important non-military IT mission within the UK was something however logical.
Warning indicators have been ignored throughout negotiations, which continued below Tony Blair’s premiership, and the subpostmasters finally paid the worth.
At the top of section two of the inquiry, Sam Stein KC, representing former subpostmasters, requested whether the scandal was the result of a “cock-up or cook-up”.
Problems from the beginning
During an inquiry listening to in October 2022, Anthony Oppenheim, former industrial and finance director at ICL Pathway, which was the corporate arrange by ICL/Fujitsu to run the Horizon mission, mentioned issues with the Post Office Horizon IT system reported earlier than its roll-out ought to have been considered a “showstopper”, however weren’t.
The roll-out of Horizon ought to have stopped till reported issues have been fastened, and subpostmasters having bother balancing their books ought to have been given “the profit of the doubt”, he advised the listening to.
Premonition of Horizon tragedy
The public inquiry noticed paperwork that exposed the suggestions to the Post Office after dwell trials noticed Horizon run in 300 places of work in 1999. There have been critical considerations over the software program, which was inflicting “difficulties and trauma” for subpostmasters struggling to steadiness their accounts.
Former Post Office Horizon programme director David Miller mentioned that in a gathering with the National Federation of Subpostmasters (NFSP) govt in 1999, there was a basic dialogue on the extreme difficulties being skilled by subpostmasters.
Horizon builders have been a ‘joke’
The groups growing the software program have been lower than scratch and have been thought of “the joke of the constructing” at Fujitsu/ICL UK.
During the questioning of Terence Austin, former methods programme director at ICL Pathway, it emerged {that a} taskforce was set as much as examine issues in Horizon’s digital level of sale service (EPOSS) growth. The taskforce reported that whoever wrote the code “had no understanding of elementary arithmetic or probably the most fundamental guidelines of programming”.
Software developer David McDonnell advised the inquiry that, when he arrived, the EPOSS growth crew was “just like the Wild West” with “no requirements, an absence of guidelines and no design”.
He mentioned the crew was “the joke of the constructing”.
Hardball negotiation left subpostmasters susceptible
Hardball negotiations between the federal government, the Post Office and ICL, which was acquired by Fujitsu, meant subpostmasters have been ignored and thrown right into a tragedy that might have been averted.
Former Post Office Counters managing director Stuart Sweetman advised the inquiry the federal government was taking part in hardball as a result of the Post Office had extracted fairly a great deal from it.
He was requested a couple of Horizon Working Group assembly in June 1999, the place it was mentioned that regardless of critical issues, there was no query of suspending or delaying the mission.
Confirmation bias
Post Office investigators have been so satisfied that subpostmasters have been cooking the books that they failed to research alleged IT issues.
Jeremy Folkes, former senior tech lead on the Post Office, advised the inquiry there was an understanding in investigation groups that there have been considerations over the accounting system integrity, however they have been ignored as a result of individuals within the investigations and prosecutions aspect within the Post Office had affirmation bias.
Pressure from Japan
The inquiry heard how the Horizon mission turned a international affairs challenge for the UK. Pressure was placed on the UK authorities by IT provider Fujitsu to log out the contract when it was unsure.
In 1998, the British embassy in Tokyo wrote to the UK authorities warning it of critical financial repercussions, together with UK job losses, ought to the contract with the Post Office be cancelled.
During the inquiry listening to, former civil servant David Sibbick mentioned there was “rather a lot” of time strain coming from Fujitsu to get the contract accomplished.
Federation failed its members
Part of the issue for subpostmasters is that they by no means knew of the issues within the background till they have been struck by them. The National Federation of Subpostmasters (NFSP) didn’t assist. The organisation that was purported to symbolize subpostmasters intentionally suppressed details about pc errors.
Colin Baker, former NFSP basic secretary, mentioned the organisation wished the general public to assume the Horizon mission “was wonderful”.
Post Office boosted its coffers
The public inquiry heard how the Post Office made monetary positive factors when it pressured subpostmasters to pay for losses of their branches that have been attributable to pc errors.
Former NFSP president John Peberdy advised the inquiry the Post Office was eager to get subpostmasters to cowl accounting shortfalls with their very own cash, somewhat than get to the underside of what had triggered them.
Phase three – January 2023
Almost a 12 months after the statutory public inquiry started, section three moved it to the operation of the Horizon system. This was a big, complicated system involving the interplay of pc {hardware}, telecoms connections and different software program methods, and it was being launched to customers who largely had little or no expertise of computer systems.
Closing section three, Ed Henry KC, representing Post Office victims, mentioned the scandal was “as dark a chapter in our governmental, corporate and legal history as can be imagined, and sadly, it would get darker but”.
‘Hail the almighty Horizon’
At the start of section three, the inquiry heard that the Post Office despatched messages to employees designed to reassure them that the Horizon accounting system was strong, after Computer Weekly first revealed issues in 2009.
Senior Post Office executives advised employees as half of its inner messaging to not reveal issues attributable to Horizon. Shaun Turner, a former senior govt working within the Post Office National Business Support Centre (NBSC), which supported subpostmasters utilizing Horizon, advised the Post Office inquiry he was conscious “as a basic theme” of the priority in Post Office that if the issues have been recognized it might trigger an absence of confidence in Horizon. He mentioned he had this opinion “largely from the messaging that was popping out of the enterprise”.
Unrestricted, unaudited, unbelievable
The Post Office was prosecuting individuals based mostly on information from the Horizon system, information that needs to be 100% reliable. Yet employees within the Fujitsu help centre had unaudited entry to subpostmaster accounts and will make modifications with out their information.
Stephen Parker, a former supervisor at Fujitsu’s Software Support Centre, mentioned employees remotely accessing department methods merely relied on them being reliable and following the entry coverage, with no policing of their exercise.
‘Toxic, racist and rudderless’
The individuals working within the help centres reported a poisonous tradition with poor management in addition to some experiencing racism day by day.
IT advisor Amandeep Singh labored at ICL on the Post Office’s Horizon helpdesk in Wakefield, Yorkshire, from 2000 to 2001. He advised the inquiry that the helpdesk operation he was half of was rudderless, resentful, racist and undertrained to assist subpostmasters. There was additionally a tradition of not trusting the subpostmasters, he mentioned.
Celebrating miscarriages of justice
The Post Office used its authorized groups and exterior legal professionals to close subpostmasters up and destroy them. Seema Misra, former subpostmaster in Byfleet, Surrey, was despatched to jail in 2010 after being wrongly prosecuted for theft.
During the questioning of former Post Office govt Rod Ismay, within the newest Post Office Horizon scandal public inquiry listening to, proof emerged of the gleeful response of Jarnail Singh, former head of legal legislation on the Post Office, after the organisation defeated Misra in courtroom over her challenges to the reliability of the Horizon accounting system.
Whitewash Horizon report
In 2010, amid claims subpostmasters have been being blamed and prosecuted for accounting shortfalls attributable to the Horizon system, the Post Office commissioned an inner report on its efficiency. The inquiry was advised the report lacked objectivity and its goal from the outset was to present the software program a clear invoice of well being.
There have been no phrases of reference for the report, which was instigated by then Post Office managing director David Smith, however it was made clear to the top of product and department accounting (P&BA) Rod Ismay, who was tasked with finishing the report, that he ought to simply report on “constructive causes to be assured about Horizon” to present a clear invoice of well being to the software program.
Phase 4 – July 2023
Phase 4 of the statutory public inquiry ran for six months, punctuated by delays because of this of the Post Office’s failure to reveal info in a well timed method. Darkly ironic because the section was investigating the Post Office’s authorized practices when prosecuting subpostmasters, which included failure to reveal info to subpostmaster defence groups. The section have to be seen within the context that over 100 subpostmasters have had wrongful legal convictions overturned, with about 800 extra set to be quashed en masse when authorities laws completes its journey by Parliament.
Summarizing section 4, Tim Moloney KC representing former subpostmasters mentioned the section had laid the bottom for the very actual prospect that former Post Office employees and people supporting the Post Office at exterior corporations could face criminal investigation themselves. He mentioned: “At worst, [their] actions now, as maybe simply a place to begin, lay some witnesses open to rigorous legal investigation.”
Changing tales
The inquiry heard that, in 2003 professional IT witness Jason Coyne was requested to report on the Horizon system as half of a dispute between a subpostmaster and the Post Office. In his unbiased report, which was ordered by the choose, he mentioned there have been clear issues with the know-how. The Post Office tried to convince him that he was wrong about Horizon. When he refused to vary his assertion, it dropped its case with the subpostmaster and paid her off in a non-disclosure settlement.
Phase 4 heard from former Post Office auditor Helen Rose who was concerned in a authorized battle with former subpostmaster Lee Castleton, who was made bankrupt after difficult the Post Office in courtroom after it blamed him for unexplained accounting shortfalls. She produced a witness assertion in courtroom that differed from her unique audit report, which was beneficial to Castleton. In her witness assertion she mentioned he had been ingesting on the time of the audit, however in her audit report didn’t point out this.
No concern for welfare of subpostmasters
The Post Office’s main consideration was to “defend the integrity of its [IT] system” when taking subpostmasters to courtroom over unexplained accounting shortfalls, and never the subpostmasters’ welfare, in line with a Fujitsu memo written within the aftermath of the courtroom battle with Lee Castleton.
In the memo, former Fujitsu IT professional Anne Chambers wrote that the Post Office was not involved about attending to the underside of reported issues with the Horizon pc system as a result of it wished to guard its status.
Robotic reminiscence failure
Memory loss has been a generally recurring theme in section 4 of the general public inquiry. The selective recollections of the legal professionals and investigators concerned within the prosecution of subpostmasters was by no means clearer than within the proof of former Post Office lawyer Mandy Talbot. She was nicknamed “the Post Office’s very personal evil robotic” by a barrister representing victims of the scandal.
What witness assertion?
Elaine Cottam, former retail line supervisor on the Post Office, advised the general public inquiry that, regardless of having signed a witness assertion for use in courtroom, she has no recollection of writing it. The witness assertion was for use by the Post Office in a authorized dispute with one of the over 100 branches she oversaw in her position.
During the listening to, Cottam denied any information of the case and mentioned she didn’t perceive why she was giving proof on the inquiry.
‘They’re all crooks’
When Gary Thomas was requested why he was completely satisfied he had saved his outdated investigation papers he mentioned: “I need to show that there is no such thing as a FFFFiiinnn [sic] ‘Case for the Justice of Thieving Subpostmasters’ and that we have been the most effective investigators they ever had they usually have been all crooks!!”
The subpostmasters he was referring to went on to prove, in the High Court, that the Horizon system was error-prone and compelled the federal government to determine a statutory public inquiry into the Post Office Horizon scandal.
Phase 5 and 6 – April 2024
Phases 5 and 6 of the inquiry, which mixed two beforehand deliberate phases, had the monumental process of inspecting an enormous vary of complicated points. For instance, it was tasked with understanding the investigation of the Horizon system carried out by forensic accounting specialists Second Sight, the mediation scheme that adopted (and its collapse), the Post Office’s conduct throughout a High Court group litigation, in addition to how the organisation responded to the scandal and extra.
Beginning in April 2024, it was at all times going to be an enormous one. It had all of the makings of an epic – two phases condensed into one 16-week chunk, oral proof from 66 individuals together with former ministers, the present chief of the Liberal Democrats and a disgraced former Post Office CEO, for starters. For spice, add to that the looks of often stealth-like civil servants and two million pages of proof, and the truth that this was the primary section of the general public inquiry to be extensively coated by the media, having come after the broadcasting of ITV’s dramatisation of the scandal.
Arise Sir Alan
Bates had initially refused to participate within the inquiry, which was initially established as a non-statutory review missing the powers of a statutory inquiry. He believed it might have allowed the federal government to “brush it below the carpet”. In a February 2021 letter to then prime minister Boris Johnson, Bates requested for the non-statutory Post Office Horizon IT Inquiry to be paused, be re-established as a statutory inquiry, and a public session be held on the phrases of reference.
Bates’ refusal to participate was a major message. It performed an vital half within the evaluation being converted to a full judge-led statutory public inquiry.
In his proof to the inquiry, Bates pointed the finger at civil servants, who he mentioned have been extra accountable than politicians for the size of time the Post Office scandal had been allowed to run.
He mentioned he was sure that the civil service and the Post Office have been “briefing ministers within the course they wished”. Later proof from ministers and civil servants didn’t contradict this assertion.
Read extra about Sir Alan Bates’ oral proof to the inquiry:
• Civil servants more to blame for Post Office cover-up than ministers, says Alan Bates
An illogical crime
Cook’s assertions that subpostmasters “had their fingers within the until” defied logic, in line with proof from Anthony Hooper, a former Lord Justice of Appeal.
Hooper, who was tasked with settling disputes between the Post Office and subpostmasters in 2013, mentioned it was clear from the beginning that legal prosecutions towards subpostmasters have been “basically implausible”. He mentioned he advised the then Post Office CEO Vennells and chair Alice Perkins this throughout one-on-one discussions in 2014.
Questioned about his experiences of coping with the Post Office, he mentioned: “I used to be making an attempt to make it clear to Post Office that [its] case didn’t make sense. It didn’t make sense that respected subpostmasters, appointed by the Post Office after examination of their character, can be stealing these sums of cash. It didn’t make sense notably as a result of inside a matter of days of any alleged theft, they needed to steadiness the books. It simply by no means made sense.”
Read extra about Anthony Hooper’s oral proof to the inquiry:
• Subpostmasters stealing from branches ‘didn’t make sense’, former judge tells inquiry
Lawyers behind the illogical prosecutions
Sitting behind each prosecution was a crew of legal professionals. The public inquiry heard from them through the newest section.
During questioning, it turned clear that Post Office inner lawyer Rodric Williams turned his consideration to all method of Post Office challenges, whereas failing to satisfy the code of conduct of his chosen occupation.
During the inquiry hearings, a barrister representing subpostmaster victims mentioned Williams was on the centre of the “net” and “half of” makes an attempt to hush up the Horizon scandal on the Post Office.
Through inner paperwork, it could possibly be seen he was concerned all through the Post Office’s makes an attempt to stop information of issues with the Horizon software program turning into recognized outdoors the organisation.
Read extra about Rodric Williams’ oral proof to the inquiry:
• Post Office lawyer was a jack of all trades, but failed his own
Threats, obstruction and cover-up
Independent forensic accountancy agency Second Sight was contracted to research the Horizon system in 2012 after MPs pressured the Post Office to get an exterior professional view.
Second Sight’s administrators, Ian Henderson and Ron Warmington, are two of the heroes within the combat for justice. Their diligence, experience and professionalism performed a significant position in lifting the lid on the Post Office’s behaviour.
The pair have been unable to discuss their expertise in unearthing particulars of Horizon issues and prosecution malpractice for years, as a result of non-disclosure agreements. Their look within the newest section was the primary time they’d spoken publicly.
During the session, they described Post Office cover-ups, threats, obstruction and the “worst company behaviour” seen of their lengthy careers.
Henderson advised the inquiry that when Second Sight’s investigation started, it rapidly turned obvious that subpostmasters had been wrongly prosecuted based mostly on proof from the Horizon system, with ensuing miscarriages of justice.
Warmington described the investigators’ struggles in attending to the reality: “It was terrible, simply coping with individuals who weren’t simply seemingly failing to grasp nearly every thing we mentioned, however have been, we now know – we suspected on the time – have been in a kind of cabal that was colluding to or conspiring to thwart each transfer that we made.”
Read extra about Second Sight’s oral proof to the inquiry:
• Post Office Horizon investigators were blocked and threatened as they witnessed cover-up
The unholy CEO
The long-awaited look on the inquiry of Paula Vennells, , Post Office CEO from 2012 to 2019, included the revelation that former Royal Mail CEO Moya Greene just lately accused Vennells of understanding what was happening on the Post Office whereas its practices have been destroying the lives of tons of of subpostmasters.
Text exchanges between Vennells, a former priest, and Greene have been revealed. Following the published in January of the ITV Post Office scandal drama, Greene, who was Royal Mail CEO from 2010 to 2018, messaged Vennells questioning what she knew concerning the Horizon issues.
In the iMessage change, Greene wrote: “Paula, simply again within the UK. What I’ve discovered from the [public] inquiry/parliamentary committee may be very damaging.
“When it was clear the system was at fault, the Post Office ought to have raised a purple flag, stopped all proceedings, given individuals again their cash after which attempt to compensate them for the damage this triggered of their lives.”
Greene was not alone in criticising Vennells’ deafness and blindness to what was happening round her. Alisdair Cameron, at the moment Post Office chief monetary officer (CFO), who was interim CEO for a brief interval when Vennells left the organisation in 2019, was crucial too.
In the inquiry, he was requested a couple of doc he wrote in 2020 relating to what went flawed on the Post Office. In that he wrote: “Paula didn’t imagine there had been a miscarriage and couldn’t have gotten there emotionally.”
Asked by inquiry barrister Jason Beer KC what he based mostly this view on, Cameron mentioned: “Everything she kind of mentioned on the time. She had been clear in her conviction from after I joined that nothing had gone flawed. This was acknowledged in my very first board assembly and he or she by no means, in my observations, deviated from that.”
He agreed that she “had been unwavering in her conviction that there have been no miscarriages of justice”.
Read extra about Alistair Cameron’s oral proof about Vennells:
• Post Office CEO Paula Vennells ‘didn’t believe there were miscarriages of justice’
During her questioning, Vennells was additionally requested about her position in eradicating a reference to the Post Office Horizon system within the IT threat part of a Royal Mail prospectus, because it was being floated on the inventory market, and the way she later bragged about doing so.
During the flotation of the Royal Mail in 2013, a prospectus was drawn up for potential buyers. There was a reference within the threat part of the prospectus to the Post Office Horizon system, which on the time was being blamed for errors inflicting accounting shortfalls which subpostmasters have been prosecuted for. Public information of this might have been extremely damaging to the flotation, with the prospect of wrongful convictions of subpostmasters and potential future challenges.
During the listening to, Vennells mentioned she was not concerned within the privatisation, however regardless of this, acknowledged that she took out the reference to Horizon. Documents confirmed she received in contact with the corporate secretary and mentioned she didn’t perceive why the reference was there and requested to have it eliminated, which it was. Vennells later boasted about it in an e mail to Post Office chair Alice Perkins. “I’ve earned my carry on this one,” she wrote.
Read extra about Paula Vennells’ proof to the inquiry:
• “You knew” – former ally accused Paula Vennells of knowing about Horizon problems
• Paula Vennells boasted about removing Horizon risk reference in Royal Mail flotation prospectus
The comms man
A communications director central to the Post Office’s technique to maintain dangerous information out of the general public eye mentioned that he and others believed they have been doing the suitable factor.
Mark Davies, former group communications and company affairs director on the Post Office, and the general public relations crew he ran performed a task in obstructing journalists investigating allegations made by subpostmasters towards the Post Office’s Horizon accounting system utilized in branches.
During his questioning within the public inquiry, the previous communications director was requested by inquiry barrister Julian Blake whether or not he and others in his crew had ever requested themselves, “Might we be the baddies?” Davies mentioned many occasions: “We actually believed we have been doing the suitable issues.”
But proof proven within the inquiry revealed that in 2013, following information that former subpostmaster Martin Griffith was critically unwell in hospital after trying to take his personal life, one of the primary issues Davies did was to inform the Post Office’s basic counsel they wanted to discover a specialist media lawyer. At the time, Griffiths was being pressured to repay unexplained account shortfalls on the Horizon system and was shedding his Post Office department. Griffiths died in hospital weeks later.
Read extra about Mark Davies’ oral proof to the inquiry:
• Comms director at centre of cover-up never thought Post Office were the ‘baddies’
The CIO who towed the conflicting line
Former Post Office IT boss Lesley Sewell had the chance to cease the organisation deceptive the general public over software program errors, however went together with false public statements that have been in battle together with her skilled opinion.
During her public inquiry look Sewell, who joined the Post Office in 2010 and was CIO from 2012 to 2015, agreed with inquiry barrister Emma Price that individuals throughout the organisation knew about software program bugs as early as 2006, and that she knew of a bug as early as 2011. She was requested by Price: “How can or not it’s, subsequently, that the general public place of the Post Office up till May 2013 was that there aren’t any bugs in Horizon?”
Sewell answered: “I don’t know the reply to that as a result of from my perspective as an IT skilled, I’d by no means say there aren’t any bugs in any system, since you do have faults in pc methods and it’s vital the way you cope with them.”
Read extra about Lesley Sewell’s oral proof to the inquiry:
• Post Office IT boss failed to raise concern over false Horizon statements
The IT professional turning his hand to the unknown
Former Fujitsu tech boss Gareth Jenkins was questioned for 4 days on the inquiry, such is the significance of what he is aware of.
He started performing as an professional IT witness to courts for the Post Office within the early 2000s, when the organisation was utilizing pc proof to prosecute subpostmasters who had unexplained shortfalls. But throughout his questioning, Jenkins revealed he didn’t truly perceive the tasks connected to the position till 2020, years after he ceased to be an professional witness.
Jenkins, a arithmetic graduate from Cambridge University and former senior engineer at Fujitsu, was a senior IT professional engaged on the Horizon system. He gave proof in 15 prosecutions of subpostmasters as much as 2013, when the Post Office was suggested by a barrister to now not use him as he had given deceptive proof previously.
During his four-day inquiry look, Jenkins mentioned he by no means acquired recommendation about his tasks as an professional witness. “The first time I turned conscious of my duties as an professional witness was after I was first put in contact with solicitors in 2020/21 as half of the police investigation into my conduct,” he mentioned.
In 2013, Simon Clarke, a barrister at Cartwright King, advised the Post Office that Jenkins had misled courts when giving proof towards subpostmasters accused of theft and false accounting by failing to say software program errors he was conscious of. In what is called The Clarke Advice, he wrote that Jenkins shouldn’t be used as an professional witness once more.
Jenkins advised the inquiry that his position was to inform the reality. Asked if he tailor-made his proof accordingly, he disagreed and mentioned: “I tried to reply the questions I used to be requested.”
Jenkins mentioned he was sorry for what occurred, however added that he felt that was right down to the way in which the Post Office behaved. “I clearly received trapped into doing issues I mustn’t have accomplished,” Jenkins advised the inquiry.
Read extra about Gareth Jenkins’ oral proof to the inquiry:
• Ignorance of ‘legal niceties’ from Post Office expert IT witness saw innocent people jailed
• Former Fujitsu engineer says Post Office ‘trapped’ him into giving incomplete evidence
The unrepresentative
During his look on the Post Office scandal public inquiry, George Thomson, former National Federation of Subpostmasters (NFSP) basic secretary from 2007 to 2018, was in denial over the Post Office Horizon scandal, which unfolded throughout his watch.
The man who headed up the federation, tasked with defending the pursuits of subpostmasters, nonetheless believes prosecutions and suspensions after Horizon’s introduction have been no completely different to people who occurred earlier than. “I’ve been round a very long time: suspensions have at all times taken place, prosecutions have at all times taken place, below the handbook system as effectively, tons of of subpostmasters suspended,” he advised the inquiry. But the figures inform one other story.
Read extra about George Thomson’s oral proof to the inquiry:
• Numbers prove former subpostmaster federati on boss’s ignorance over Post Office scandal
Civil servants left it to luck
The authorities left it to “luck” to watch the Post Office administration, which meant it missed alternatives to stop the Horizon scandal and the struggling it triggered, the general public inquiry was advised.
As an arms-length physique, 100% owned by the federal government, the Post Office was free to run its enterprise because it selected, with little authorities involvement.
According to proof from Mark Russell, former CEO of UK Government Investments, the physique that oversees the federal government shareholding within the Post Office, the board of administrators was the one test on the organisation, with the federal government shareholder counting on “luck” ought to the Post Office board miss issues.
During the newest listening to, barrister Christopher Jacobs, representing former subpostmasters, requested what mechanisms have been in place for “detecting and coping with conditions corresponding to on this case the place senior executives acted in dangerous religion in overlaying up issues”.
Russell mentioned: “The precept reply to that needs to be the Post Office board as a result of they’re our oversight. They have the time, they’ve the capability, they’ve the information, and their operate is to carry the manager to account. If they miss it, then we would simply catch it, however I must say it’s kind of luck. That mentioned, we now have missed issues right here, and it was a disaster.”
Read extra about Mark Russell’s oral proof to the inquiry:
“No minister”
Sam Stein KC, representing victims of the scandal, summed it up when he mentioned new ministers “took on the job of ignoring the Post Office”.
During an inquiry listening to, Stein put to Pat McFadden, who was a minister accountable for the Post Office between 2007 and 2010, that the federal government was receiving “uncommon” and “notably sturdy” allegations towards the Post Office. “Subpostmasters being made to pay again cash, prosecuted or turning to legal acts [false accounting] is wholly uncommon.”
McFadden agreed. Stein continued: “What occurred subsequent is your organisation went again to the Post Office, who the subpostmasters considered ‘the abuser’, asking, ‘What’s happening?’” Stein referred to the Post Office’s reply, which got here from former CEO Alan Cook to Binley, which mentioned there have been no issues.
Read extra about Pat McFadden’s oral proof to the inquiry:
• Government trusted ‘abuser’ over the abused on Post Office scandal
Conservative peer Lucy Neville-Rolfe was questioned about her time as a minister when she oversaw the Post Office in 2015/16. Like ministers showing within the newest section of the inquiry, she reeled off examples of her questions concerning the Horizon scandal not being answered by the civil servants who have been purported to be supporting her.
The division previously generally known as Shareholder Executive (ShEx), now UK Government Investments (UKGI), which sorted government-owned belongings such because the Post Office, “misplaced its objectivity” in regard to the unfolding Post Office Horizon scandal, she advised the inquiry.
She described an atmosphere the place the Post Office and ShEx civil servants have been speaking behind her again, and one the place the division had “a foot within the Post Office camp”. She mentioned that when she requested questions, somewhat than civil servants examine claims, they might obtain info instantly from the Post Office.
Read extra about Lucy Neville-Rolfe’s oral proof to the inquiry:
• Former minister felt she was fighting department over Post Office controversy
Former authorities minister Margot James advised the inquiry that attending to the reality was hampered as a result of civil servants had “gone rogue” of their dealing with of the Post Office.
James, who was appointed minister within the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) in July 2016, mentioned: “There was an assumption on the half of the Post Office board members that the subpostmasters have been within the flawed [over Horizon],” she advised the Post Office scandal inquiry. “I feel that the Post Office board did regard them as incompetent at greatest and legal at worst.”
She added that the Post Office was “terribly good at seeing itself because the sufferer” by suggesting there was an “orchestrated marketing campaign” from subpostmasters that had “no legitimacy”.
James mentioned proof confirmed that officers didn’t adhere to the civil service values of integrity, honesty, impartiality and objectivity. “It was an instance of a crew of people who needs to be following these rules which have gone rogue and deserted them,” mentioned James.
Read extra about Margot James’ oral proof to the inquiry:
• Post Office ‘acted the victim’ and civil servants ‘abandoned their principles’, says former minister
Current Liberal Democrat chief Ed Davey and former chief Jo Swinson have been questioned by inquiry barristers about their time as ministers within the coalition authorities because the scandal was unfolding.
Davey was the minister within the enterprise division in cost of the Post Office from 2010 to 2012, whereas Swinson took the helm after him till the coalition authorities led to 2015. This was a interval when MPs were raising questions on behalf of subpostmasters of their constituencies and there was growing media protection of the controversial challenge.
Davey and Swinson detailed events when the actions of officers at ShEx prevented them from attending to the basis of the Post Office scandal and performing on it.
Swinson and Davey have been new to authorities, having joined the Conservative and Liberal Democrat Coalition authorities following the inconclusive 2010 basic election. Swinson was minister in cost of the Post Office in 2012/13 and 2014/15. She advised the newest public inquiry listening to that civil servants have been “Orwellian” and “duplicitous” in how they withheld info from her relating to the Post Office.
Bates mentioned: “From the testimony of these [from ShEx] within the inquiry final week, it’s apparent that it’s the civil servants who’ve to hold the majority of the burden of blame.”
Read extra about Ed Davey and Jo Swinson’s oral proof to the inquiry:
• Ed Davey and Jo Swinson ‘handled’ by civil servants in Post Office cover-up, says Sir Alan Bates
Former Liberal Democrat chief Vince Cable advised the inquiry that the Post Office was “authoritarian” in its dealings with subpostmasters, whereas fellow former Conservative minister Greg Clark was equally scathing of Post Office tradition.
In his witness assertion to the inquiry, Cable, who was secretary of state within the Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) division from 2010 to 2015, additionally accused the Post Office of mendacity to civil servants in ShEx.
Meanwhile, Greg Clark, who was secretary of state for BEIS from 2016 to 2019, was requested concerning the Post Office tradition. He mentioned: “Drawing on my expertise with my constituent, I’m inclined to assume the administration of the Post Office was insensitive to the purpose of abject rudeness in direction of subpostmasters,” he advised the inquiry.
Read extra about Vince Cable and Greg Clark’s oral proof to the inquiry:
• Vince Cable says the Post Office ‘lied’ to the government over Horizon issues
Phase seven – September 2024
This section marked the top of oral proof to the Post Office Scandal statutory public inquiry. It was all about in the present day on the Post Office and a glance into the longer term. The section crammed onlookers with actual concern concerning the Post Office’s course and anger about some of the present goings on. Chair Wyn Williams will spend months placing collectively his closing report, which is predicted earlier than the summer season. The section kicked off with the unwelcomed information that the Horizon system was nonetheless an actual drawback and later, by proof from Fujitsu boss, Paul Patterson, it appears subpostmasters might be keep it up for a while but.
The section additionally revealed the unpopularity of outgoing CEO, Nick Read, and his unpreparedness for the job, however extra shockingly was proof revealing a police investigation right into a present worker over allegations of destroying paperwork of potential curiosity to the general public inquiry.
Core of the issue – and nonetheless an issue
It all started with a pc system that didn’t work correctly. This was confirmed to be the case within the High Court in 2019, and in line with proof introduced within the newest section of the Post Office Horizon IT Inquiry, wanting on the right here and now, subpostmasters are nonetheless fighting the system.
Phase seven kicked off with Gavin Ellison, from analysis firm YouGov, which was commissioned by the general public inquiry to hold out a survey of subpostmasters to higher perceive their experiences of Horizon and the broader know-how platform they use in branches.
The results were not reassuring. Perhaps probably the most startling discovering was that three-quarters of 1,000 present subpostmasters have used their very own department cash to cowl discrepancies or resolved the problem themselves since 2020.
It additionally revealed that 57% of subpostmasters have skilled unexplained shortfalls, with 19% reporting unexplained transactions and 14% having had transactions go lacking. Two-thirds mentioned they have been experiencing these points at the least as soon as a month.
Also giving oral proof on this section was the National Federation of Subpostmasters CEO, Calum Greenhow. He advised the inquiry that subpostmasters are at the moment dwelling with disputed however unresolved money owed to the Post Office. He mentioned some circumstances have been happening for years, and demanded the Post Office deliver that to an open and clear conclusion.
Read extra about YouGov’s survey of subpostmasters: Post Office system still causing unexplained shortfalls for over half of subpostmasters.
Read extra about Calum Greenhow’s oral proof: Subpostmasters living years with disputed but unresolved debts to the Post Office, inquiry told.
Chaos in reaching the horizon
The YouGov numbers are one other reminder to the Post Office that the Horizon system should go. Ever for the reason that High Court judgment in 2019, which confirmed the system was error-prone, it has been apparent it’s time to change it. But the system continues to be hanging round, and the Post Office has made some big errors in its rushed makes an attempt to maneuver away from Fujitsu’s software program and companies.
During a section seven listening to, former Post Office chairman Henry Staunton and chief monetary officer Alisdair Cameron mentioned the New Branch IT (NBIT) mission to exchange the Horizon service lacks governance.
Saf Ismail, subpostmaster and non-executive director on the Post Office, additionally described some of the issues being skilled. Ismail advised the inquiry that main errors when shifting to a cloud platform resulted in £35m being spent with the only real achieve to the Post Office being a brand new air-conditioning system.
The NBIT project was supposed to replace Horizon in 2025, after being introduced in May 2022, however as revealed by Computer Weekly in May this 12 months, the project hit major problems and the Post Office has requested £1bn of further public funding from HM Treasury to get it again on observe. The mission has now been paused while the Post Office’s new leadership team decides the way forward.
Read extra proof to the inquiry revealing NBIT troubles: Post Office spending over £80,000 a week on engineers who can’t work as IT project burns cash.
Read extra about Saf Ismail’s oral proof: Post Office IT procurement mess saw £35m spent on air-conditioning, says board member.
Is there nonetheless rot on the core?
Police have been investigating individuals linked to the Post Office scandal since 2020, and earlier this 12 months, following public uproar in relation to the Horizon scandal, a national investigation was announced by the Metropolitan Police.
But what was much less recognized was the extent of the Post Office’s inner investigations associated to the scandal.
During the looks of the Post Office’s present firm secretary, Rachel Scarrabelotti, a shocking revelation emerged that the Post Office was investigating one of its personal senior managers, who had allegedly instructed employees to destroy paperwork that is likely to be of curiosity to the general public inquiry. The investigation has now been handed on to the police.
Read extra about Rachel Scarrabelotti’s oral proof to the inquiry: Post Office senior executive suspended over allegations of destroying evidence.
Culture of inner investigation
Former police officer John Bartlett, who now heads up the Post Office’s inner investigations, just like the Met Police, has his fingers full.
The inquiry heard his division had, in August this 12 months as a snapshot, six main inner investigations on the go.
During Bartlett’s oral proof, a doc titled Post Office ad hoc board report was revealed, outlining the inner investigations underway on the Post Office in August.
They included Project Acer, an investigation right into a supervisor who allegedly instructed staff to destroy material that could possibly be of curiosity to the general public inquiry, and Project Willow, which alleges that former transformation boss Chris Brocklesby misrepresented the off-the-shelf option to exchange Horizon.
The doc additionally revealed Project Alder, an investigation into allegations that contractors tasked with processing subpostmaster compensation schemes have been intentionally going sluggish to increase their contracts, and Project Phoenix, which was investigating whether or not present Post Office employees have been concerned within the investigations and wrongful prosecutions of subpostmasters.
Then there’s Project Tiger, an investigation, overseen by performing CEO Neil Brocklehurst, set as much as look into complaints from former subpostmaster and campaigner Tim McCormack concerning the Post Office’s dealing with of his current freedom of info request responses.
Read extra about inner investigations on the Post Office:
Former Post Office IT boss alleged to have misrepresented alternative to in-house build.
Who is the subject of the Post Office’s Project Tiger investigation?
Man on a mission
Post Office interim chairman Nigel Railton didn’t pussyfoot across the thorny challenge of the NBIT mission. He got here proper out with a declare that the NBIT mission was “set as much as fail” and wanted to be reset.
He mentioned two basic errors have been made on the mission’s outset – one was the choice to set the purpose “to get off Horizon” somewhat than constructing a system for the longer term, and the second was the choice to construct in-house.
Railton mentioned there are a lot of “horror tales” of individuals making an attempt to construct methods in-house, including: “I feel, based mostly on my expertise, that this was at all times set as much as fail within the first place.”
Computer Weekly revealed later that the “writing is on the wall” for the Post Office’s plan to build the NBIT system in-house because it considers dumping it in favour of an off-the-shelf digital level of sale (EPOS) different.
He additionally mentioned the mission is just too reliant on third events and likened it to the NHS being reliant on locum employees. A message has been despatched to employees that the organisation is reassessing the mission.
Read extra about Nigel Railton’s proof: Post Office IT transformation project was ‘set up to fail’, chairman tells inquiry.
Man who failed his mission
While Railton has set out his stall, one man that failed to realize that is outgoing CEO Nick Read. He was introduced in to regular the ship following the High Court judgment in 2019 and the exit of his disgraced predecessor Paula Vennells.
The inquiry had a style of Read’s status earlier than his arrival to present proof. A damning whistleblowing letter, despatched in May this 12 months, was revealed throughout a current listening to of the inquiry. It described a tradition of lies and cover-ups within the organisation that employs him and has paid him tens of millions of kilos to wash up.
A letter from Post Office employees to MPs, statutory inquiry chair Wyn Williams (pictured above) and the Post Office chairman, demanded their intervention and an investigation into the organisation’s management.
During Read’s proof, it was revealed that the Post Office CEO job description marketed in 2019 didn’t point out the landmark High Court judgment towards the organisation and its ramifications on the position. Nor have been candidates made conscious of the big and complicated IT mission that was required to exchange the Post Office’s troubled Horizon IT system.
Read admitted, throughout his look on the inquiry, that the Post Office he led “dragged its toes” when coping with staff who might have been concerned within the wrongful prosecution of subpostmasters utilizing flawed proof.
He additionally revealed that the corporate to date estimates that people working branches repaid round £36m to cowl the unexplained shortfalls.
Read extra about Nick Read on the inquiry:
Under-fire Nick Read was unprepared for Post Office challenge.
Post Office dragging its feet in getting rid of tainted staff, despite government ‘green light’.
Post Office currently believes it took £36m from subpostmasters with unexplained losses.
Cost-cutting discussions ‘like drawing tooth’
Former Post Office minister Kevin Hollinrake was crucial of Read’s incapability to chop prices throughout the organisation to assist it escape its monetary struggles. During his look on the inquiry, Hollinrake revealed that 143 individuals working for the perpetually loss-making and government-backed Post Office earn over £100,000 per 12 months.
Yet Hollinrake described his conferences with Read about slicing prices as being like “drawing tooth”, with the CEO seemingly unable to understand the nettle.
But politicians additionally acquired criticism. During his look on the inquiry, Simon Recaldin, who heads up the Post Office’s schemes to supply monetary redress to victims of the scandal, described the federal government’s take it or depart it provide of £600,000 to subpostmasters wrongly convicted as “political”. He advised the inquiry the Post Office was not consulted on the provide, and whereas he supported it, he questioned how the coverage was “imposed on the Post Office”.
Read extra about Kevin Hollinrake’s proof to the inquiry: Post Office was reluctant to cut costs despite 143 central staff earning more than £100,000.
Read extra from Simon Recaldin on the inquiry: Government’s £600,000 offer to Horizon scandal victims was ‘political’.
Marriage of comfort on the rocks
There is an extended historical past between Fujitsu and the Post Office, which started when the federal government determined the Post Office would take the Horizon system within the late Nineteen Nineties.
In 1998, following a gathering between the British ambassador to Japan and Fujitsu executives, the British embassy in Tokyo wrote to the UK government warning it of critical financial repercussions, together with UK job losses and reductions in commerce, if the Horizon contract with the Post Office have been, as feared, to be cancelled.
The system was developed by authorities IT specialist IT provider ICL, which was acquired by Fujitsu. This saved ICL and gave Fujitsu entry to a profitable public sector market, which it nonetheless enjoys in the present day.
But though the connection has, at occasions, been poisonous, the businesses have been joined on the hip with regards to defending the Horizon system and shifting blame for shortfalls onto the subpostmasters. Not anymore – the connection has fallen aside and the 2 organisations can’t wait to see the again of one another.
Chris Brocklesby, chief transformation officer at the Post Office until recently, gave proof to the inquiry in section seven. He described a strained relationship between the 2 organisations.
He additionally mentioned when he arrived on the Post Office in August 2023, there was no life like plan in place for the supply of a Horizon alternative, regardless of the plan of document being that NBIT can be deployed by March 2025.
Brocklesby mentioned when he began his position, little to no software program had been delivered.
Fujitsu knew this, however was nonetheless demanding that the Post Office appoint somebody to handle its exit from the Horizon contract. During the listening to, he accused Fujitsu of “sport taking part in”.
Later proof within the inquiry revealed there may be at the moment a standstill settlement over potential civil litigation between the provider and the Post Office, that means the 2 organisations have agreed to not take authorized motion towards one another for a sure interval of time.
Read extra about Chris Brocklesby’s oral proof: Post Office and Fujitsu – from blood brothers to bad blood.
Post Office misappropriated funds
Civil servants have featured all through the general public inquiry, with the proof accompanying them usually of probably the most revelatory selection.
Alex Chisholm, former chief working officer and everlasting secretary for the Cabinet Office, was no exception. During his proof, it was revealed that the Post Office wrongly spent tens of millions of kilos of taxpayers’ cash to fund its High Court authorized battle with subpostmasters.
The Post Office had wrongly spent at the least £2.3m of public cash on this method, and likewise wrongly requested an additional £2.4m, earlier than civil servants noticed it and put a cease to it.
Also showing earlier than the inquiry was Lorna Gratton, the civil servant who at the moment sits as a non-executive director of the Post Office on behalf of the federal government. Her proof session revealed that the Horizon system goes to be investigated once more, with a 3rd celebration to be appointed imminently.
In relation to the discrepancies that subpostmasters proceed to expertise when utilizing the Horizon system, she advised the inquiry: “The Post Office govt crew are within the course of of appointing an unbiased third-party evaluation of Horizon and its robustness.”
Read extra about Alex Chisholm’s oral proof on the inquiry: Post Office wrongly used public funds to pay for legal battle.
Read extra about Lorna Gratton’s look on the inquiry: Post Office appointing third-party reviewer of current Horizon system.
Fujitsu’s preventing discuss
Fujitsu boss Paul Patterson was profusely apologetic when he first gave oral proof in January, throughout section 4 of the inquiry, however this time round, Patterson appeared to have accomplished many rounds of sparring with firm legal professionals. He got here out preventing. Gone was the apologetic, grovelling govt, changed by an aggressive determine punching again.
During his look, Patterson mentioned the previous seven months of inquiry hearings had revealed that many organisations have been accountable for the scandal – not simply Fujitsu and its defective software program. This is true, however the place was this in his final look and the place was he for the earlier 24 months of the inquiry?
He additionally described the perilous state that Horizon is in having reached the top of its life and been starved of funding.
Read extra about Paul Patterson’s newest oral proof to the inquiry:
Post Office scandal not caused by software errors, says combative Fujitsu boss.
