The first report into the Post Office Horizon scandal is set to be published, delivering a verdict on the devastating impact on victims and their battle for compensation.
Retired judge Sir Wyn Williams will deliver the first part of his findings over overseeing a five-year public inquiry into one of the worst miscarriages of justice in British history.
More than 900 subpostmasters were wrongfully prosecuted between 1999 and 2015, after being accused of theft, fraud, and false accounting.
The fault, however, was with the Post Office’s Horizon accounting software which was riddled with bugs and defects that made it appear – wrongly – that money had gone missing.
Sir Wyn is set to deliver his findings from The Oval cricket ground on the impact of the scandal on thousands of victims, including 236 who spent time in prison. Some of the accused subpostmasters took their own lives.
The retired judge’s findings will also examine the compensation scheme for victims, which has come in for heavy criticism over the way it has operated, the money being offered, and the speed of coming to conclusions.
Lead campaigner Sir Alan Bates has previously described the complex compensation scheme as akin to “quasi-kangaroo courts”.
Sir Wyn has devoted particular attention to the compensation for victims, and two years ago delivered interim suggestions on how the scheme could be improved.
At the time, he described legislative changes made to resolve issues with the redress schemes as “a patchwork quilt of compensation schemes… with some holes in it”.
Tuesday’s report is the first part of Sir Wyn’s findings, to be followed later in the year or in 2026 with his assessment of the Horizon system itself, actions of senior figures within the Post Office and tech developer Fujitsu, and ultimately who can be held to blame.
Sir Wyn will make a public statement following the report’s publication at midday.
In a previous statement addressing the compensation schemes, the Department for Business and Trade said: “This Government has quadrupled the total amount paid to affected postmasters to provide them with full and fair redress, with more than £1 billion having now been paid to over 7,300 claimants.”
