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.
Continue reading...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.
Continue reading...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.
Continue reading...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.
Continue reading...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.
Continue reading...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.
Continue reading...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.
Continue reading...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.
Continue reading...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.
Continue reading...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.
Continue reading...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.
Continue reading...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.”
Continue reading...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.
Continue reading...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.
Continue reading...Bar Council chair Sam Townend KC says parliament should consider formal regulation of growing practice
Parliament should consider formal regulation of the growing practice of private prosecutions to ensure the power is not abused, the chair of the Bar Council has said.
Sam Townend KC said a review of private prosecutions should be launched in response to the Post Office scandal, in which about 3,500 postmasters were accused of theft, fraud and false accounting, and more than 700 prosecuted in cases brought by the organisation.
Gather evidence of the alleged crime, possibly using a private investigator.
Hand over evidence to a lawyer, who will review whether there is sufficient evidence to bring a criminal prosecution.
Make an application at a magistrates court to bring a private prosecution. This will be reviewed and either granted or rejected by a district judge.
The CPS may review the case at any time if the case is referred by the defendant, the private prosecutor or the court. The CPS can take over cases, either to proceed or discontinue.
If you proceed privately, the case will (eventually) be heard in court.
At the end of the case your lawyers can apply for costs to be reimbursed from the defendant and/or the public purse.
Continue reading...Post Office lawyers sent intimidating letters to experts interviewed for Panorama in 2015, says BBC, ahead of latest Horizon inquiry evidence
Chris Jackson, the lawyer acting for the Post Office, has apologised for delays in the disclosure of documents at a hearing in London as part of the inquiry into the Horizon scandal.
He is being questioned by the lead counsel to the Inquiry, Jason Beer KC.
The Post Office has asked me to convey its apologies for the current situation and to assure the inquiry and other core participants that it is a post office priority to get to a position where hearings (and planning and preparation for hearings) can take place from a stable basis.
I think it’s very important to be clear that these were, or the vast majority of these were, Post Office prosecutions brought by the Post Office in relation to their cases.
A small number, at the moment it looks like there may have been three or so, a handful of cases, in the five years that I was director of public prosecutions that were handled by the Crown Prosecution Service.
More details will emerge no doubt ... it’s not clear whether they’re in the cohort of cases of concern or not.
Continue reading...Critics say assumption in English and Welsh law that computers are ‘reliable’ reverses usual burden of proof in criminal cases
Ministers need to “immediately” update the law to acknowledge that computers are fallible or risk a repeat of the Horizon scandal, legal experts say.
In English and Welsh law, computers are assumed to be “reliable” unless proven otherwise. But critics of this approach say this reverses the burden of proof normally applied in criminal cases.
Continue reading...Stephen Bradshaw, former Post Office investigator, tells Horizon IT inquiry this was ‘probably not’ appropriate
Back at the Post Office inquiry Julian Blake says Stephen Bradshaw, the Post Office investigator, seems to show a “lack of reflection” on his role in miscarriage of justice events in a witness statement he supplied.
Bradshaw says he has reflected on what he said in his statement, because some of what he said was “completely wrong”. But he says he was told what he should say by lawyers.
Stephen Bradshaw, who was an investigation manager for the Post Office, said a statement signed by him declaring the Post Office’s “absolute confidence” in the Horizon IT system was written by lawyers.
A statement signed by Bradshaw in November 2012 said: “The Post Office continues to have absolute confidence in the robustness and integrity of its Horizon system.”
The average response time in December for ambulances in England dealing with the most urgent incidents, defined as calls from people with life-threatening illnesses or injuries, was 8min 44sec, PA says. This is up from 8min 32sec in November and is above the target standard response time of seven minutes.
Ambulances took an average of 45min 57sec last month to respond to emergency calls such as heart attacks, strokes and sepsis, PA says. This is up from 38min 30sec in November, while the target is 18min.
Response times for urgent calls, such as late stages of labour, non-severe burns and diabetes, averaged 2hr 37min 5sec in December, up from 2hr 16min 47secin November, PA says.
Some 13% of ambulance handovers in England last week, or 12,225 patients, were delayed by more than an hour, PA says. This was up from 12% a week earlier, but is below this winter’s current peak of 15%, recorded in the week to 10 December.
Nearly one in three patients arriving by ambulance at hospitals in England last week waited more than 30 minutes to be handed over to A&E teams, PA says. Some 28,189 delays of half an hour or longer were recorded across all hospital trusts in the week to 7 January. This was 31% of the 91,234 arrivals by ambulance, where the handover time was known. The figure is up from 29% in the previous week, but is not the highest so far this winter, which was 34% in the week ending 10 December, PA says.
Continue reading...Labour leader was director of public prosecutions when three cases brought by CPS resulted in convictions
Keir Starmer has denied he was aware of Crown Prosecution Service prosecutions against post office operators caught up in the Horizon IT scandal when he headed the agency.
The Labour leader’s comments came as calls grew for the former Post Office boss Paula Vennells to hand back £3m in bonuses earned during her period in charge.
Continue reading...Post Office minister says government is close to setting out how hundreds of operators wrongly prosecuted will be exonerated
Plans to clear the names of hundreds of post office operators wrongly convicted in the Horizon IT scandal will be announced “imminently”, a government minister has said.
Rishi Sunak will face MPs for prime minister’s questions and is under pressure to set out how the government will exonerate hundreds of post office operators accused of swindling money as a result of the flawed computer system.
Continue reading...