The criminal investigation into the Post Office Horizon scandal faces a potential five-year delay without millions in additional funding, police chiefs have warned.
Commander Stephen Clayman, leading the national police inquiry, said the team must nearly double from 111 to 210 officers to submit charging decisions to prosecutors by late next year or early 2028.
Despite a £2.8 million special grant from the Home Office, the projected budget of up to £19.3 million "for 2026/27 and beyond" leaves a £16.5 million shortfall.
In a statement issued to the media after investigators had given victims an update on Tuesday, Mr Clayman said: “Our ongoing priority remains to deliver justice for victims and families affected by the Post Office Horizon scandal.
“Earlier today, we met with victims to provide an update on our investigation, outline the progress made so far and explain some of the challenges we are facing.
“Many of these victims have been living with the impact of this for 24 years, some have already died and many more are reaching older age.
“Put simply, we do not have the luxury of time and must provide answers as soon as possible to those who so desperately deserve them.”
So far this year, police have interviewed seven more suspects under caution, meaning 13 out of 53 people under investigation have been questioned.
Mr Clayman said the inquiry is “hugely complex”, with eight million documents and counting needing to be forensically reviewed.
“Only by doing this can we piece together exactly what happened, establish who knew what and understand the role suspects may have played,” he said.
“As we have always said, the threshold to bring criminal charges is high, so we must be confident that the evidence we present to the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) has the best possible chance of meeting this bar.”
He continued: “We cannot underestimate the task in hand. Through the many conversations we’ve had with subpostmasters over the course of our investigation so far, we have been honest about these challenges and the scale of what lies ahead.
“This includes overcoming funding challenges at a time when police forces are already severely stretched. To meet our proposed timeline of submitting files for charging decisions in late 2027/early 2028, we need to double the size of the investigation team from 111 to 210.
“Without this, we risk our timelines being pushed back by as much as five years, which we know is unacceptable for those who have already been living with this for decades.
“We recently received a Home Office special grant of £2.8 million which goes some way to supporting our costs, but the reality is that we urgently need additional and sustained funding to meet our projected budget of up to £19.3 million for 2026/27 and beyond.
“Dedication, meticulous attention to detail and an unwavering focus on the goal of delivering justice remains at the heart of the team, but we must have the appropriate resources in place to support them.”
Around 1,000 people were wrongly prosecuted after Fujitsu’s defective Horizon accounting system, used by the Post Office, made it appear that money was missing at branches run by subpostmasters.
Some victims were sent to prison or financially ruined, others were shunned by their communities and some took their own lives in what is thought to be one of the worst miscarriages of justice in British legal history.
The long-running battle for justice accelerated dramatically after ITV broadcast the drama Mr Bates Vs The Post Office.
A government spokesperson said: “The Post Office Horizon IT scandal was an appalling injustice. It is important that victims’ voices are heard and that the causes identified through the public inquiry, and full and fair redress is paid out quickly to those who suffered.
“In addition, the National Police Chiefs’ Council and the Metropolitan Police Service are carrying out an investigation into potential criminality in the prosecutions of sub postmasters and the wider presentation of the Horizon IT system as robust.
“That investigation is ongoing. The Home Office has provided £3.2 million since 2023 to the MPS for Op Olympos and has allocated a further £2.8 million in 26/27 and is considering requests for further funding.”
