'Wholly unacceptable' behaviour from Post Office and Fujitsu allowed Horizon IT Scandal to happen
The first volume of the report into the Post Office Horizon IT Inquiry has been released.
Urgent action must be taken to ensure full and fair compensation for sub-postmasters affected by the Horizon IT Scandle, according to the first report from the Post Office Horizon IT Inquiry.
Sir Wyn Williams said, in the first volume of the report, that ‘wholly unacceptable behaviour perpetrated by a number of individuals employed by or associated with the Post Office and Fujitsu’ lead to around 10,000 people being affected by false claims of financial shortfalls at post offices across the UK.
Hundreds of sub-postmasters and mistresses were wrongly prosecuted and convicted based on faulty data provided by the Horizon IT system between 2000 and 2013.
Sir Wyn Williams has made 19 ‘urgent’ recommendations that focus on compensation for those affected, including:
The Post Office and UK Government agreeing on a definition of ‘full and fair’ compensation, which should be followed when deciding the level of compensation to offer.
Claimants in the Horizon Shortfall Scheme should receive legal advice funded by the government.
Close family members of people affected by the Horizon scandal should receive compensation
A public body should be created by the government which will create and deliver schemes for giving financial redress people wronged by public bodies.
The Post Office, UK Government and Fujitsu should publish a report by the 31st of October 2025 which outlines a plan for restorative justice.
False Accounts from Horizon
Sir Wyn Williams opens his 162-page report saying the original version of Horizon, now known as Legacy Horizon, was rolled out to post offices from September 1999. The report says some employees at Fujitsu at this time knew Legacy Horizon was capable of producing losses or gains in branch accounts that were false.
The Post Office maintained the ‘fiction’ of this data was always accurate. However, the report says almost as soon as Legacy Horizon was rolled out, postmasters had started to complain it was producing false data that affected branch accounts.
As the years went on, the number of complaints of this nature grew louder and became more persistent. Throughout this period, the Post Office still resisted claims Horizon was creating false data.
A new version of Horizon known as Horizon Online was rolled out in 2010 but was also affected bugs that showed losses and gains in accounts that were ‘illusory’.
From 2000 to 2013, postmasters were prosecuted on information provided by these Horizon systems, with false data being treated as ‘wholly reliable’.
In each case, the Post Office asserted losses seen on financial accounts were real as opposed to illusory.
Hundreds of people were charged and convicted because of these false accounts, and thousands were wrongly held responsible for false losses.
The Impact on Postmasters
Sir Wyn Williams says it is impossible to say exactly how many people suffered as a result of a reliance on data provided by Horizon but says around 10,000 people are eligible for financial redress schemes.
The suffering caused by this scandal varies widely. Some sub-postmasters were blamed for losses of 10’s to hundreds of pounds. Others were held responsible for losses reaching hundreds of thousands of pounds. This lead many to be wrongly convicted or imprisoned, becoming seriously ill or declaring bankrupt.
The report recognized at least 13 cases of people taking their lives in connection to mistakes made by the Horizon system.
Changes to Compensation
Sir Wyn Williams says that, despite the Government and Post Office appearin to show a desire to provide full and fair compensation, there have been ‘formidable difficulties in the way of achieving those aims’.
He said the current Horizon Shortfall Scheme did not provide full and fair compensation for those affected.
In the report, Sir Wyn says ‘I am persuaded that in the difficult and substantial claims, on too may 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’.
The recommendations from this report mainly focus on improving the experience for postmasters claiming compensation.
The report said significant delays to the process had negative impacts on the postmasters. It says older claimants were worried about the limited time they have to claim compensation, and others said the process has caused them harm through things like exacerbating mental health problems.
Government Response
Sir Wyn Williams decided to publish the first volume of this report as soon as possible, with the last information taking into consideration on the 6th June 2025.
He says no purpose would be served by a delayed response from the Government for these recommendations until the remainder of the report had been delivered.
Sir Wyn says he hopes by releasing recommendations ahead of the delivery of the full report would allow for appropriate action for the compensation schemes to be taken as soon as reasonably possible.