Post Office scandal had 'disastrous' impact on victims, official inquiry says

The Post Office Horizon IT scandal had a "disastrous" impact on those wrongly accused and prosecuted for criminal offences, the first report from the official inquiry into the scandal has found.

Sir Wyn Williams' report has revealed the scale of the suffering caused to hundreds of sub-postmasters wrongly prosecuted over shortfalls in their branch accounts, as well as others affected.

Sir Wyn said at least 59 people contemplated suicide at various points, of whom 10 attempted to take their own lives, and more than 13 people may have killed themselves due to the scandal.

The Post Office apologised "unreservedly" and said it would carefully consider the report.

This first volume of Sir Wyn's report focuses on the human impact of the scandal, as well as issues around compensation.

Victims had divorced, suffered serious mental health issues and alcohol addiction as a result of their ordeals, the inquiry found.

"A number of persons said they could not sleep at night without drinking first. One postmistress said she 'went to rehab for eight months as the Post Office had turned her to drink to cope with the losses,'" Sir Wyn wrote.

The report makes a series of urgent recommendations, including:

• free legal advice for claimants
• compensation payments for close family members of those affected
• a programme of restorative justice with Fujitsu, the Post Office and the government meeting individual victims directly

Sir Wyn also criticised the "formidable difficulties" around the delivery of financial redress for victims, which is currently organised around three different schemes.

He criticised the speed of compensation, saying that for many claimants it had not been delivered "promptly".

Discussing one scheme, for those who experienced unexplained shortfalls related to Horizon but were not convicted, Sir Wyn says: "I am persuaded that in difficult and substantial claims, on too many occasions, the Post Office and its advisors have adopted an unnecessarily adversarial attitude towards making initial offers."

According to the report, 10,000 eligible people are currently claiming redress, and Sir Wyn expects that number to rise by "at least hundreds" over the coming months.

He called on the government to publicly define what is meant by "full and fair financial redress" and recommended changes to some of the schemes.

Sir Wyn will look at how the scandal happened and who was responsible in a later report.

But in this first part, he said that he was satisfied that senior employees of the Post Office were aware, or should have been aware, that an older version of the Horizon software was capable of giving false data.

He said a number of Post Office and Fujitsu employees knew a later version of the software had "bugs, errors and defects" which could affect branch accounts.

Sir Wyn has asked the government to respond to his findings no later than October 2025.

The government said that some members of Horizon victim's families will be eligible for compensation.

Post Office minister Gareth Thomas said the scheme would be open "to close family members of existing Horizon claimants who themselves suffered personal injury – including psychological distress – because of their relative's suffering".

But he added that the government would need written evidence of that injury made at the time "other than in exceptional circumstances".

He said devising such a scheme "raises some very difficult issues".

"Nonetheless, we want to look after those family members who suffered most," he said.

A Post Office spokesperson said: "The Inquiry has brought to life the devastating stories of those impacted by the Horizon Scandal. Their experiences represent a shameful period in our history.

"Today, we apologise unreservedly for the suffering which Post Office caused to postmasters and their loved ones. We will carefully consider the report and its recommendations."

The report also gave details of the some of the legal costs of the various compensation schemes so far.

Newly published government figures show the total legal costs paid for the "operational delivery of Horizon redress schemes" have risen to £100m.

For their work on the Horizon Shortfall Scheme up to 2 December 2024, law firm Herbert Smith Freehills were paid £67m by the Post Office.

Post Office campaigner and former sub-postmaster Jo Hamilton said it was "just mad" that the government is "spending millions on lawyers to pull the claims apart" that they have paid for to be brought.

She said the report out on Tuesday was "huge" because it laid bare the scale of the suffering.

The investigations into who is culpable for that suffering will be "interesting", she adds.