Category Archives: Post Office

Former Post Office executive says he should not have said Horizon was robust

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David Miller, then chief operating officer, tells inquiry he does not remember 1999 meeting in which comment was made

A former Post Office executive has told a public inquiry that he “should not have said” to its board that the Horizon IT system was “robust and fit for purpose” and agreed there had been a “missed opportunity” to investigate post office operators’ concerns.

David Miller, who retired in 2006 as chief operating officer of Post Office, had been told of problems with Horizon when he held meetings with post office operators in June 1999, the inquiry into the scandal has heard.

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Ex-MP tells inquiry Post Office ran a ‘behind-the-scenes deception process’

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James Arbuthnot says concerns about reliability of faulty Horizon computer system were ‘brushed off’

A former MP has told a public inquiry that the Post Office appeared to have been operating a “behind-the-scenes deception process” about the reliability of its faulty Horizon computer system.

James Arbuthnot, who is now a Conservative peer, began campaigning for post office operators in 2009 after taking up the case of Jo Hamilton, who was wrongly convicted of theft.

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Ministers to quash convictions of hundreds of post office operators

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Legislation will overturn convictions of theft, fraud and false accounting during Horizon scandal

Ministers will publish legislation to quash the convictions of hundreds of post office operators who were prosecuted during the Horizon scandal, marking a significant victory for victims after decades of campaigning.

The legislation on Wednesday will automatically overturn convictions of theft, fraud and false accounting that were handed down in connection with Post Office business during that period. It will cover prosecutions brought by the Post Office and the Crown Prosecution Service in England and Wales between 1996 and 2018.

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Horizon scandal victim uses Brits appearance to urge faster compensation

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Jo Hamilton presented a music award alongside Monica Dolan, who portrayed her in Mr Bates vs The Post Office

A former sub-post office operator has used an appearance at the Brit Awards to urge the speeding-up of compensation for those unfairly prosecuted as part of the Post Office IT scandal.

Jo Hamilton made her appeal alongside the actor Monica Dolan, who portrayed her in ITV’s hit dramatisation of the episode, Mr Bates vs The Post Office. The pair were presenting the first category of the evening at the O2 Arena in London.

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Minister cut off during interview after refusing to say why Lee Anderson’s Sadiq Khan slur was wrong – UK politics live

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Illegal immigration minister Michael Tomlinson repeatedly refused to explain Anderson’s comments in LBC interview

Back at the business committee Andy McDonald (elected as a Labour MP, but currently sitting as an independent after having the whip withdrawn) complained about the amount of compensation being offered to post officer operators. He said what happend to them was “born of malice”. As a result, he said, compensation should not just cover loss of earnings, and other ways people were disadvantaged. He said there should be “aggravated and exemplary” damages to reflect the malice involved.

Sir Ross Cranston, the former Labour solicitor general who is now independent reviewer of the Post Office GLO scheme, said the scheme was operating on the basis that compensation should be “full and fair”. But that went beyond just paying people for what they lost, he said.

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‘Toxic culture of disbelief’ persists at top of Post Office, MPs told

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Committee releases minutes of board meeting before appearance by former Post Office chair Henry Staunton

Newly published documents show that a “toxic culture of disbelief” persists at the top of the Post Office when it comes to wronged post office operators, MPs have been told.

Post Office board members complained of being “tired and constantly distracted by historical issues, short-term crisis management and funding issues”, minutes of one of their meetings last year show.

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ITV announces drama on contaminated blood scandal after Post Office series success

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Peter Moffat will write show about what is considered one of the biggest miscarriages of justice in NHS history

ITV has announced a drama on the contaminated blood scandal, widely considered to be one of the biggest miscarriages of justice in NHS history, after the success of its series on the Post Office.

The drama, which is being written by the Bafta award-winning screenwriter Peter Moffat, will show how people with haemophilia and other blood disorders were contaminated with blood infected with HIV and Hepatitis C, the American media site Deadline reported.

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Post Office said last month it stands by most Horizon convictions

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Letter shows Post Office told ministers it would oppose attempts to overturn 369 prosecutions

The Post Office has admitted writing to ministers saying it would stand by the prosecution of more than half of the post office operators targeted during the Horizon scandal as recently as last month.

Despite the outpouring of concern and anger after what has been described as Britain’s worst miscarriage of justice, the letter from the Post Office’s chief executive, Nick Read, showed it would oppose attempts to overturn the prosecutions in 369 cases.

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Tory and SNP anger as speaker allows Labour’s amendment on Gaza ceasefire vote – UK politics live

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Move will help Keir Starmer head off threatened rebellion from his MPs

New 20mph limits are helping cut speeds and will save lives, the Welsh government has insisted. PA Media says:

Drivers are travelling on average 4mph slower on main roads in Wales since the rollout of a new lower speed limit for built-up areas, data collected by Transport for Wales (TfW) shows.

The Welsh Labour government, which implemented the change in September last year, insists the lower speeds will lead to fewer collisions and people injured.

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Minister says government working on sanction options for those involved in Alexei Navalny’s death – UK politics live

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Leo Docherty, Foreign Office minister, says government ‘working at pace’ to hold those responsible for Russian opposition leader’s death to account

No 10 has declined to repeat Kemi Badenoch’s claim that the former chair of the Post Office gave an interview “full of lies” about the conversation she had when she sacked him.

At the morning lobby briefing, the PM’s spokesperson would not adopt the language used by Badenoch in a post on X yesterday and instead claimed that Badenoch believes that the account of what she said given by Henry Staunton is a “misrepresentation”.

Obviously this referred to a conversation that she had with Henry Staunton, and you’ll have seen her words on this; she’s very clear that the interview that he gave was a misrepresentation of her conversation with him and the reasons for his dismissal.

And the government has being clear, and will refute the allegations [that it wanted to slow down compensation to victims]. The government has taken action to speed up the compensation to victims, and we’ve consistently encouraged postmasters to come forward with their claims. Any suggestions otherwise [are] not correct.

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Kemi Badenoch accuses Post Office chair she sacked of seeking revenge

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Business minister criticises Henry Staunton after he claimed the government wanted to stall payouts to scandal victims

Kemi Badenoch has accused the Post Office chair she sacked of a “blatant attempt to seek revenge” after he made explosive allegations about the government’s handling of the Horizon scandal.

The business secretary launched an extended attack on Henry Staunton in the Commons on Monday, and claimed that he was under investigation for bullying when she fired him.

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Former Post Office chair says he was told to stall Horizon compensation payouts

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Henry Staunton claims request was made so government could ‘limp into’ the next general election

A former Post Office chair said he was told by a senior civil servant to stall compensation payouts to post office operators so the government could “limp into” the general election.

Henry Staunton, who was sacked by the business secretary, Kemi Badenoch, last month amid anger over the Horizon scandal, said the request came soon after he took up the role in December 2022.

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Fujitsu bosses have been paid £37m since it won Post Office contract

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Spotlight turns on seven executives who presided over Horizon contract that led to huge miscarriage of justice

Bosses at Fujitsu have collected about £37m in pay, bonuses and compensation for loss of office since the technology company won the contract to supply the software at the heart of the Post Office Horizon scandal, it has emerged.

Accounts going back 25 years reveal the seven-figure sums paid out to executives of the UK division of the Japanese-owned technology company, even as more than 900 people were prosecuted as a result of flaws in the system their company supplied.

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Fujitsu won £1.4bn in new government contracts after court ruling on Post Office software bugs

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MPs find Treasury-affiliated bodies have engaged Horizon firm since damning 2019 high court judgment

The Japanese technology company Fujitsu, whose flawed technology for the Post Office led to the wrongful prosecution of hundreds of subpostmasters, is confirmed to have held contracts worth more than £3.4bn linked to the Treasury since 2019.

Figures published by the Commons’ treasury committee show £1.4bn of contracts were awarded to Treasury-affiliated organisations after a high court ruling in December 2019 over the company’s software. The judgment found that “bugs, errors and defects” in Fujitsu’s Horizon system could cause shortfalls in Post Office branch accounts.

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Ed Davey apologises for his role in Post Office Horizon scandal

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Lib Dem leader, who was business minister from 2010 to 2012, says he is sorry he ‘did not see through Post Office’s lies’

Ed Davey has apologised for the first time for his role as a minister in the Horizon scandal, with the Liberal Democrat leader saying he was “sorry I did not see through the Post Office’s lies”.

Writing in the Guardian, Davey, whose business minister role from 2010 to 2012 involved oversight of the Post Office, said officials had initially advised him to not meet Alan Bates, who led the campaign into the unjust targeting of post office operators.

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Fujitsu government contracts under scrutiny in light of Horizon scandal

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Treasury committee writes to 21 bodies including Bank of England and HMRC to demand details of post-2019 deals

Fujitsu’s receipt of lucrative government contracts despite its role in the Post Office Horizon scandal has come under greater scrutiny after the Treasury committee wrote to organisations including the Bank of England and HM Revenue and Customs to demand details of their contracts with the tech company.

The influential group of MPs told 21 public bodies, including the Treasury itself, to provide information on work given to the Japanese-owned company since 2019, when the high court ruled there had been dozens of bugs and errors in its Horizon IT system.

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Top judge says it is not for government to decide if judges available for Rwanda asylum appeals – UK politics live

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Lady Carr, most senior judge in England and Wales, says she will decide if judges are allocated to asylum appeals hearings in apparent rebuke to No 10

More than 60 Tory MPs have signed at least one of the various rebel amendments to the Rwanda bill tabled by hardliners. But very few of them have said publicly that, if the amendments are not passed, they will definitely vote against the bill at third reading. Suella Braverman and Miriam Cates are among the diehards in this category. But Simon Clarke, in his ConservativeHome, only says, that, if the bill is not changed, he will not vote for the bill at third reading, implying he would abstain.

In an interview with Sky News, Robert Jenrick, the former immigration minister who has tabled the rebel amendments attracting most support, said he was “prepared” to vote against the bill at third reading. He said:

I am prepared to vote against the bill … because this bill doesn’t work, and I do believe that a better bill is possible.

So the government has a choice. It can either accept my amendments … or it can bring back a new and improved bill, and it could do that within a matter of days because we know the shape of that bill.

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Ed Davey’s approval rating takes a big hit from the Post Office scandal

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Letter shows the Lib Dem leader initially refused to meet a campaigner when he was a minister responsible for the service

Lib Dem leader Ed Davey has seen his personal popularity take a significant hit in the wake of the Post Office scandal, according to the latest Opinium poll for the Observer.

Davey was one of a series of ministers responsible for the Post Office during the crisis, holding the role between 2010 and 2012. He has received criticism after a letter emerged in which he refused to meet Alan Bates, the former postmaster and campaigner fighting for justice, telling him: “I do not believe a meeting would serve any useful purpose.”

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Plans to reform private prosecutions after Post Office Horizon scandal

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Improved oversight and a law to strip organisations of their power to take people to court are among measures gaining cross-party support

Plans to overhaul the growing “cottage industry” of private prosecutions are already being urgently examined by ministers in the wake of the Post Office scandal, including measures that could see untrustworthy bodies barred from pursuing them.

Labour is also understood to be drawing up its own reform package this weekend after the outcry prompted by the Post Office’s use of private prosecutions against more than 700 post office subpostmasters. It means that there is growing scope for a cross-party commitment to complete any reforms after the election.

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Tony Blair was warned about ‘flawed’ Horizon system, memo shows

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Documents released by inquiry into Post Office scandal show ex-PM and adviser discussing concerns

Sir Tony Blair was warned the IT system at the centre of the Post Office scandal was “flawed” before it was rolled out, a document shows.

The warning appears in a memo written to the former prime minister by special adviser Geoff Mulgan in 1998, which has been released by the public inquiry into the scandal.

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