After three years of gathering evidence and hearing harrowing testimonies, the public inquiry into the Post Office Horizon scandal has officially closed its hearing. The final day of closing statements took place on Tuesday (17 December), marking a significant milestone in the fight for justice for hundreds of sub-postmasters wrongly accused of theft and false accounting.
The inquiry, chaired by retired high court judge Sir Wyn Williams, was established in non-statutory form on 29 September 2020 to investigate the failings of the Horizon IT system, developed by Fujitsu, which led to widespread discrepancies in Post Office branch accounts.
These discrepancies resulted in the wrongful prosecution and conviction of numerous sub-postmasters between 1999 and 2015, devastating lives and reputations.
It was converted to a statutory inquiry on 1 June 2021 and started preliminary hearing on 8 November 2021.
Over the past three years, the inquiry has heard from a wide range of witnesses, including former sub-postmasters, Post Office executives, Fujitsu employees, and government officials. The evidence presented painted a disturbing picture of a flawed IT system, a culture of denial within the Post Office, and a failure to adequately investigate the concerns raised by sub-postmasters.
“[This] is an Inquiry that is about people: about people whose mental and physical health has been impacted; about people whose marriages and partnerships have deteriorated and failed; about people who thought about taking their own lives; and, in some cases, who took their own lives,” Jason Beer KC, counsel to the inquiry, said at the start of closing submissions on Monday.
“We have disclosed 270,785 documents to the core participants in the inquiry … I am reliably informed that the page count for that disclosure is 2,214,858 pages. We have presently obtained 780 statements (including disclosure statements)... We have heard oral evidence from 298 witnesses, including a wide range of expert evidence.”
The inquiry has published a video outlining its journey so far, including key moments throughout its seven phases of investigationwww.youtube.com
The last day of the inquiry has heard from lawyers representing the Post Office, Fujitsu, and the Department for Business and Trade as well as the legal representatives for former Post Office chief executive Paula Vennells and Gareth Jenkins, the former Fujitsu engineer.
On Monday, lawyers acting for sub-postmasters told the inquiry the Post Office's “cruel” and “malignant culture” had “destroyed the innocent”.
Following the conclusion of oral evidence, the inquiry has published written closing submissions received from core participants to the inquiry. As part of the its continued investigation, the inquiry has published 53 further witness statements from former sub-postmasters, Post Office senior executives, and current and former government ministers. This includes 27 statements from the inquiry’s Human Impact phase, where Sir Wyn heard evidence from people affected by the Post Office scandal on how it had impacted their lives.
With the inquiry now concluded, Sir Wyn will continue gathering and analysing evidence, drafting the final report. The inquiry will also begin a process known as Maxwellisation, giving anyone who it is proposed significantly or explicitly to criticise in the report a reasonable opportunity to respond.
The inquiry report is expected to provide a comprehensive account of the scandal, identify those responsible, and make recommendations to prevent similar injustices from happening again.
