Let’s remind ourselves of the basics when it comes to how this story unfolded.
More than 900 sub-postmasters and postmistresses were prosecuted on charges including theft and false accounting due to a faulty IT software – developed by Fujitsu – called Horizon, in what has been called the UK’s most widespread miscarriage of justice.
The Post Office itself took many cases to court, prosecuting 700 people between 1999 and 2015. Another 283 cases were brought by other bodies, including the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS).
Some went to prison and others were financially ruined.
In 2017, a group of 555 sub-postmasters took legal action against the Post Office via the High Court. Two years later, it agreed to pay them £58m in compensation, but much of the money went on legal fees.
A draft report uncovered by the shows the Post Office spent £100m fighting the group in court despite knowing its defence was untrue. The Post Office said it would be “inappropriate” to comment.
Although campaigners won the right for cases to be reconsidered, only 95 convictions had been overturned by mid-January 2024.
