Post Office: Prosecutions

(asked on 12th April 2021) - View Source

Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of who was originally responsible for the prosecution of Post Office subpostmasters.


Answered by
Lord Callanan Portrait
Lord Callanan
Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
This question was answered on 26th April 2021

The Government understands the serious impact that issues arising from faults with the Horizon IT system, and the Post Office’s management of these issues, have had on affected postmasters’ lives and livelihoods.

Justice Fraser has considered what happened over this period and has set out his findings in considerable detail. The findings outlined an extensive insight as to what went wrong at the Post Office, including an independent judicial view of the facts that all sides have been looking for.

The Government has also launched the Post Office Horizon IT Inquiry on 29 September 2020. The purpose of the Inquiry is to understand and acknowledge what went wrong in relation to Horizon, establish a clear account of the implementation and failings of Horizon over its lifecycle and identify what key lessons must be learned for the future. The Inquiry is chaired by Sir Wyn Williams FLSW. Sir Wyn Williams is independent of both the Post Office and the Government, so he can draw conclusions based on the evidence submitted and produce recommendations and actions that may, in his view, be appropriate as a result of his findings. It would not be appropriate to draw conclusions on responsibility before the work of the Inquiry is complete.

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