Post Office bosses given security guards for Horizon scandal hearing
POST OFFICE bosses will be protected by security guards when giving evidence to a public inquiry about why they wrongly prosecuted subpostmasters next month.
The Government has hired two private security staff “equipped to manage potential situations of conflict” to guard witnesses at the next hearings of the inquiry into the Horizon scandal.
The inquiry will examine why criminal and civil proceedings were wrongly brought against subpostmasters accused of stealing money from the Post Office, when faulty IT equipment was responsible for the missing funds.
More than 700 people were wrongly convicted of false accounting or theft between 1999 and 2015 because of errors made by Horizon software used by the Post Office and owned by Fujitsu, the Japanese tech giant.
More than 30 people died before the saga, described earlier in the inquiry as “the worst miscarriage of justice in recent British legal history”, was unveiled, while others were bankrupted. Some lost their homes after the Post Office used proceeds of crime orders in an attempt to recover the alleged shortfalls.
A compensation scheme has been established for those affected, although campaigners have argued the payments are not enough to cover their losses.
Those who suffered “severe” reputational damage have been offered a maximum of £10,000 in compensation, a sum supporters have argued is “an insult”.
But an agreement published on the Government’s contracts database shows £80,000 has been set aside for security guards for the next phase of the public inquiry, which begins at Aldwych House in central London on June 6.
Post Office witnesses appearing before Sir Wyn Williams, who is leading the inquiry, include two former heads of security at the company, former contract managers and auditing staff.
A spokesman for the Post Office Horizon IT Inquiry said: “It is standard for inquiries to employ security at public hearings and this is consistent with the inquiry’s practice across all previous phases.”