Why has it taken so long to speak out on Horizon scandal?

LIVES shattered. Reputations ruined. Loved ones lost – with some even having taken their own lives.

The Horizon IT scandal, which affected subpostmasters from 1999 and 2015, was something most of us were already aware of before ITV made a docu-drama about it.

So why has it taken so long for the Government to act? More importantly, why has it taken a TV series for authorities to suddenly sit up and decide that they should do something?

Described as the most widespread miscarriage of justice in UK history, the Post Office accused around 3,500 branch owner-operators of taking money from their business – and more than 700 were prosecuted, despite protesting their innocence.

Considering the scale of the ‘thefts’ – which were in fact caused by an IT error – it makes you wonder how low the opinion of ordinary people must be among Post Office bosses, to think that this number of working people had their hands in the till. And the hubris of those bosses to rule out anything other than plain old stealing as the cause of the problem – and not in fact an issue with the computer system which had been brought in?

For those caught up in the scandal, the consequences have turned many lives upside down, and ended others altogether. Many faced bankruptcy as they had to pay back money which they never in fact took in the first place. An error in a software programme can be understood, but the fact that the Post Office stood behind this erroneous system and instead blamed ordinary people trying to make a living is inexcusable.

Even less excusable is the fact that the Government has only found a sudden urgency of interest in resolving this matter since the ITV series was screened to millions – and in a year in which we are due for a General Election.

It was in 2019 that a group of Post Office operators won a High Court case in which their convictions were ruled wrongful and the Horizon IT system was ruled to be at fault. The ruling was upheld on appeal in 2021.

Yet, more than two years on, only 93 convictions have been overturned and even fewer – just 27 – have agreed to ‘full and final settlements’.

Victims have openly asked why the Post Office and the Department for Business and Trade were put in charge of the scheme to decide compensation.

Considering the saga has now been dragging on for 25 years, it seems that only now has the Government taken an interest.

In an appearance on BBC One’s Sunday With Laura Kuenssberg programme, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said: “Everyone has been shocked by watching what they have done over the past few days and beyond and it is an appalling miscarriage of justice.

“Actually seeing it and hearing about it again just shows what an appalling miscarriage of justice it is for everyone affected and it’s important that those people now get the justice they deserve.”

Actually, Mr Sunak, that time was years ago.

The entire process has shed a damning light not just on the fact that a shareholder-led business has the right to carry out prosecutions – usually the domain of the Crown Prosecution Service – but the justice system as a whole.

The Conservative Government gains even less kudos for being interested now, only so they can avoid admitting they have sat on their hands for years. But, according to Mr Sunak, his list of priorities is almost completed. Unbelievable.