The final phase of the Post Office Horizon IT Inquiry has begun with witnesses called for the final time before closing statements are made in December.
Chaired by retired High Court judge Sir Wyn Williams, the inquiry is tasked with providing a public summary of the failings which occurred with the Horizon IT system at the Post Office, leading to the prosecution of more than 900 sub-postmasters in what has been called the most “widespread miscarriage of justice” in British legal history.
It will also consider whether the Post Office has learnt lessons and implemented the necessary changes for the future.
Phase Seven of the statutory inquiry, which began in June 2021, is examining current practice and procedure, recommendations for the future and whether the Post Office has lived up to its commitment of “full and fair compensation.”
Over the course of two months, Sir Wyn is hearing evidence from a variety of witnesses, including senior figures at the Post Office, current and former ministers and civil servants, governance expert witnesses and a representative from the independent research and data analytics firm YouGov.
He said: “We have looked long at the past, but now I’m coming up to date, so to speak, and I want to know about the present, both in terms of sub-postmasters’ reactions to the present regime… and postmasters’ reactions to the compensation scheme, HSS (Horizon Shortfall Scheme) in particular.”
Who is Alisdair Cameron and what was his role at the Post Office?
Alisdair Cameron is due to give evidence to the inquiry on Tuesday 1 October, as part of phase seven.
Mr Cameron is the former chief financial officer of Post Office Ltd. He resigned from his position in June after being on sick leave for more than a year.
He had been with the Post Office since 2015 and served under former boss Paula Vennells and then Nick Read.
What has Alisdair Cameron said at the Post Office inquiry?
Mr Cameron gave evidence previously at the inquiry in May this year, beginning by apologising to the victims of the Horizon scandal.
He revealed then that senior leadership figures at the Post Office had wanted to end the role of independent forensic accountants Second Sight investigating the Horizon system.
Second Sight had revealed problems with the Horizon system in its interim report in 2013.
According to Mr Cameron, the directors were saying they should have “got a proper accounting or law firm to do a professional piece of work and move on.”
He said: “This was the narrative, as I recalled it when the decisions were being made in the first half of 2015, to deal with the Mediation Scheme differently, shut it down, move on from Second Sight.”
In November 2020, Mr Cameron had written an internal document for new chief executive Nick Read, entitled What Went Wrong, months after the Post Office paid almost £58m to settle a high court lawsuit over Horizon brought by the campaigner Alan Bates and other post office workers.
In it he wrote that former chief executive Paula Vennells “did not believe there had been a miscarriage [of justice] and could not have got there emotionally”.
Asked about this, he said: “She seemed clear in her conviction from the day I joined that nothing had gone wrong and it was very clearly stated in my very first board meeting.”
He also wrote in the 2020 document that the “original sin” of the Post Office was “our culture, self-absorbed and defensive, stopped us from dealing with postmasters in a straightforward and acceptable way”.
His report stated the Post Office was “over-reliant on Horizon and knew its weaknesses” and “should have settled the claims, apologised and moved on”.
At the inquiry, he said it was a “seismic moment” when the Post Office lost the first part of the court case in 2019 and that should have been the time for the organisation to “stand back and reflect” but instead the position had been that “it’s the judge that’s the problem”.
A year earlier he said the Post Office had debated employing “more assertive” city lawyers to handle the case but had feared looking like “corporate bullies”.
But he pointed out to the inquiry: “My feeling is actually we looked like corporate bullies anyway given the size of the Post Office.”
Are sub-postmasters expected to receive compensation?
There are four schemes of compensation for those affected by the Horizon scandal.
The Group Litigation Order scheme (GLO)
Set up by the Department for Business and Trade (DBT), it provides extra financial redress for postmasters who were claimants in the Group Litigation and part of its settlement in 2019.
There is total fixed sum of £75,000 inclusive of interest or victims can make a separate claim for individual losses.
As of 30 August, £87m has been paid under the scheme including interim payments.
The Horizon Convictions Redress Scheme (HCRS)
Also administered by the DBT, this was recently opened to provide redress for people whose criminal convictions were overturned by legislation passed into law by the UK and Scottish Governments in may this year.
Those wrongly convicted of a crime because of the Horizon IT system used by the Post Office can register to be paid for their losses.
This is a fixed total sum of £600,000, made up of a preliminary payment of £200,000, then a second and final payment of £400,000.
Or victims can apply to have a detailed assessment of their case to receive a different amount.
Overturned Convictions Scheme
The Post Office is separately administering financial redress for people whose Horizon-related criminal convictions have been overturned by the Courts, following appeals.
Horizon Shortfall Scheme (HSS)
The Post Office is also administering the Horizon Shortfall Scheme, established in 2020, to provide redress for postmasters who were not claimants in the Group Litigation.
Total payments of more than £144m have been made through the scheme as of 30 August 2024.
