Volume one of the final inquiry report from the retired high court judge Sir Wyn Williams, who chaired the hearings into the Post Office Horizon IT scandal, lays bare the “disastrous” human impact on the thousands of post office operators wrongly accused of taking money from their branches because faulty software showed a shortfall, many of whom went to prison.
Here are five key findings from the report:
1. At least 13 suicides have been linked to the scandal
The number of people who either took their own lives or contemplated doing so is much higher than thought. Previous reporting had linked the scandal to four suicides, but Williams said the total was more like 13, and could be higher if some deaths have not been reported to the Post Office and his inquiry.
At least 59 people had suicidal thoughts, and 10 attempted to act on them, some more than once. Considering suicide “was a common experience across both those who were and were not prosecuted”, the report said.
There was also a wider mental health toll for those caught up in false accusations, with accounts of depression, anxiety and 19 people driven to abuse alcohol.
2. About 10,000 people are seeking financial redress
There are about 10,000 eligible claimants in compensation schemes, and that number is likely to rise “at least by hundreds, if not more, over the coming months”, the report said. More than £1bn had been paid out to more than 7,300 post office operators as of early June, according to the government.
Speaking after the report was published, Williams said there were still more than 3,000 claims to resolve, including 1,500 complex and standard claims which were either in the process of assessment or waiting for the process to begin.
“Postmasters have described significant delays in receiving compensation, frustration from a lack of information throughout the process, and settling for less than they believe amounts to full and fair financial redress,” the report said. “Some elderly postmasters have expressed concerns that they will have limited time to obtain any benefit from the redress they may eventually receive.”
Williams said many of the claims worth between £20,000 and £60,000 were not settled on a “full and fair” basis, while many larger claims had not been fully settled.
3. About 1,000 operators were wrongly convicted
The figure is higher than previous reported estimates, which have varied between 700 and just over 900. There were also between 50 and 60 people who were prosecuted, but not convicted. “It is at least possible that there may have been more,” the report said. On top of this were those whose cases never reached court, the “many thousands of people have been held responsible, wrongly, for losses which were illusory”.
4. Post Office bosses behaved ‘unacceptably’
Those in charge at the Post Office should have known the Horizon IT system was faulty, but “maintained the fiction that its data was always accurate” when prosecuting branch operators, the report said. “Although many of the individuals who gave evidence before me were very reluctant to accept it … 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,” Williams said.
His report criticised the “wholly unacceptable behaviour” at times of a number of employees at the Post Office and Fujitsu, which developed the software, as well as by the two companies as institutions. The Post Office was found to have adopted an “unnecessarily adversarial attitude” to those seeking financial redress.
5. The government, Post Office and Fujitsu have until 10 October to respond
The three entities have been asked to come up with a programme of “restorative justice” – such as psychological support for victims, an entrepreneurial fund and memorial scheme – by the end of October.
Ministers and the Post Office have also been asked to publicly explain their meaning of the phrase “full and fair financial redress”, which can be then used to assess how much to offer in each case.
It seems likely that Williams wants to include the government’s response in his final report, along with further recommendations. We do not know when volume two will be published, but it is more complex and likely to take longer, meaning it could come as late as next year. It will cover the technical issues with the Horizon IT system, the Post Office’s handling of the reported discrepancies, legal proceedings against post office operators, institutional culture and government oversight.
In the UK and Ireland, Samaritans can be contacted on freephone 116 123, or email jo@samaritans.org or jo@samaritans.ie. In the US, you can call or text the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline on 988, chat on 988lifeline.org, or text HOME to 741741 to connect with a crisis counsellor. In Australia, the crisis support service Lifeline is 13 11 14. Other international helplines can be found at befrienders.org
