Post Office review identifies 900 Horizon-related prosecutions

Post Office said it has identified around 900 cases of prosecution since the introduction of Horizon IT system in 1999, “which may have relied on Horizon data”.

The ongoing review is part of the measures initiated by the Post Office following the conclusion of the long-running trial at the High Court over the efficiency of the Horizon system which went against the firm.

“The detail of the cases is being examined and the proportion involving Horizon evidence is still being determined,” the Post Office said in a statement.

In March, the Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC) has decided to refer the convictions of 39 sub-postmasters for appeal following the High Court verdict. The commission has another 21 cases before it to decide.

Post Office added that it has been working closely with the CCRC on the cases, and said its review of relevant historical convictions looks to “identify and disclose any material that might cast doubt on the safety of those convictions.”

In a reply to a Freedom of Information (FOI) request, the Post Office has earlier revealed that the review has found around 500 convictions, in addition to the ones referred to the CCRC.

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Earlier this month, Post Office has announced a new Historical Shortfall Scheme for current and former sub-postmasters to claim shortfalls related to previous versions of its computer system.

Post Office also made public an FOI response regarding the number of convictions in cases prosecuted by it since 1990. While the cases also include prosecutions not related to Horizon, the data shows that there’s an eight-fold increase in the convictions in the six years after the introduction of Horizon in 1999, when compared with the previous six years.

As the High Court ruled in favour of the postmasters in the group litigation against the Post Office, it has stated that the Legacy Horizon, which was in use between 2000 and 2010, “was not robust.” On the HNG-X, the earlier version of the modern Horizon Online, the judge said its “robustness was questionable, and did not justify the confidence placed in it by the Post Office in terms of its accuracy.”

Post Office settled case brought by over 550 claimant postmasters by reportedly agreeing to pay £58 million. The case dealt with the Post Office’s accusations of stealing by postmasters from their branches which the litigants say are caused by discrepancies in the Horizon system.