UK Post Office Maintained Horizon System Fiction Causing 1,000 Wrongful Convictions

A public inquiry chaired by Sir Wyn Williams has revealed that both Post Office and Fujitsu management were aware that the Horizon IT system was flawed but deliberately maintained the false belief that its data was always accurate, leading to wrongful prosecutions of approximately 1,000 subpostmasters between 1999 and 2015. The report details how these prosecutions caused severe personal consequences, including mental health issues, addiction, and as many as 13 suicides linked to the scandal. Despite clear knowledge of bugs and defects in both the original Legacy Horizon system and its 2010 replacement, Horizon Online, Post Office leaders, including former CEO Paula Vennells, aggressively pursued prosecutions and adopted an adversarial stance towards compensation claims. The inquiry criticized the Post Office and government for failing to provide fair and timely redress, noting that complex financial settlements were hampered by an unnecessarily hostile approach. The scandal, described as one of the worst miscarriages of justice in British legal history, has led to roughly £768 million paid in compensation, with an estimated 10,000 people eligible to submit claims. The findings underscore systemic abuses of power by Post Office leadership and call for continued efforts to deliver justice for affected subpostmasters and their families.