I, like millions of other viewers, have been eagerly watching the ITV drama Mr Bates vs The Post Office.

For those reading who haven’t seen it, this series is based on the so-called ‘Horizon Scandal’ which is one of the greatest miscarriages of justice in British legal history.

The background is that in about 1999 / 2000, the Post Office introduced a computerised electronic point-of-sale and accounting function called Horizon, owned by Fujitsu. All sub-postmasters and sub-postmistresses (SPMs) were required to use the Horizon system in their Post Offices.

Following the rollout of Horizon, individual SPMs had noticed accounting discrepancies which the Post Office had blamed them for and subsequently accused them of false accounting and theft. The SPMs contracts with the Post Office stated that the SPMs were held personally responsible for all losses through negligence, carelessness or error and were required to repay the shortfall in full.  Between 1999 and 2015, the Post Office pursued hundreds of prosecutions against SPMs, many of whom were advised to plead guilty despite having not committed a crime.

The SPMs eventually joined together to bring a group litigation action against the Post Office in 2017 which continued for several years. By that time, some SPMs had been convicted in court and some had served prison sentences.   

Common issues

In March 2019, Mr Justice Fraser handed down a detailed judgment about common issues in the case known as Alan Bates and Others v Post Office Limited (No. 3:Common Issues). Within the judgment, Mr Justice Fraser stated that there was a culture of excessive secrecy at the Post Office about the whole subject matter of the litigation and that was directly contrary to how the Post Office should have been conducting itself. The court also made a series of findings which included that there was an implied term within the contract between the SPMs and the Post Office of good faith.

Horizon issues

There was a further detailed judgment handed down in December 2019 in the case of Alan Bates v Post Office Limited (No.6: Horizon Issues). Importantly, in that judgment the court found that the Horizon system contained a number of “bugs, errors and defects” which caused lasting discrepancies in branch accounts. Having reviewed significant expert evidence, the court found that the Horizon system did not alert SPMs to such errors. A key part of the judgment (and indeed the ITV drama) is that Fujitsu was able to access account transaction data remotely and in doing so, made it look as though many account transactions had been carried out by SPMs when in fact they hadn’t.

What next?

Sir Wyn Williams is currently conducting a public inquiry into what happened. The Post Office Horizon IT Inquiry was established in non-statutory form in September 2020 and was converted to a statutory inquiry in June 2021. A statutory inquiry gives the inquiry legal powers. The inquiry is expected to conclude hearing evidence in the Spring / Summer of 2024.

Speaking at a Parliamentary debate in July 2023, the Minister for Enterprise, Markets and Small Business Kevin Hollinrake had said that the scandal had a “devastating impact” on those affected. The Minister said that the Post Office must learn from past mistakes and that the Government is determined that SPMs affected by the Horizon scandal should be compensated. The Minister also said in his speech that the Post Office had paid £20.4 million in compensation which included an initial interim payment to 81 individuals and 65 partial settlements, top-up payments or hardship payments. The Minister also confirmed full and final settlement had been reached with 4 people and that 99% of the original claimants have now received an offer and that the values of the offers is more than £100 million. A further £2.1 million had been offered to the 91 late claims. The Minister also confirmed that his government department was administering the group litigation order scheme and that his department had paid out £21 million in compensation. Please note, these figures were contained in the Westminster Hall debate in July 2023.

Alan Bates aka Mr Bates told BBC Radio 4 that he hoped the TV programme could speed up compensation payments.

The Post Office has encouraged those who have been affected to seek redress.

On 8 January 2024 and largely in response to the ITV drama, the media reported that Ministers had been meeting about the Horizon scandal. The Prime Minister said that the victims were “treated appallingly”.