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First tranche of final report from Horizon scandal inquiry to be published

First tranche of final report from Horizon scandal inquiry to be published

Leader Live14 hours ago
More than 900 subpostmasters were wrongfully prosecuted by the Post Office between 1999 and 2015 in what has been dubbed as the worst miscarriage of justice in British legal history.
Many were wrongly convicted of crimes such as theft and false accounting after faulty Horizon software made it look as though money was missing from their accounts.
Subpostmasters' lives were destroyed – with some bankrupted by legal action and sent to prison.
On Tuesday, the first volume of the Horizon IT inquiry's final report will be published – covering the devastating impact on the lives of the scandal's victims and the compensation process.
The issue of financial redress has frequently been flagged as an issue by subpostmasters – with many still awaiting full compensation.
The various compensation schemes have been criticised by victims as unfair and difficult to navigate – processes which lead campaigner Sir Alan Bates has previously described as 'quasi-kangaroo courts'.
Retired judge Sir Wyn Williams, the chairman of the probe, will make a public statement following the report's publication.
The inquiry was established in 2020, with a number of witnesses giving evidence on the use of Fujitsu's Horizon system, Post Office governance and the legal action taken against subpostmasters.
In a previous statement addressing the compensation schemes, the Department for Business and Trade said: 'This Government has quadrupled the total amount paid to affected postmasters to provide them with full and fair redress, with more than £1 billion having now been paid to over 7,300 claimants.'
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At least THIRTEEN people may have taken their own lives over the Post Office Horizon scandal with scale of victims' suffering 'hard to exaggerate', damning inquiry finds
At least THIRTEEN people may have taken their own lives over the Post Office Horizon scandal with scale of victims' suffering 'hard to exaggerate', damning inquiry finds

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At least THIRTEEN people may have taken their own lives over the Post Office Horizon scandal with scale of victims' suffering 'hard to exaggerate', damning inquiry finds

More than a dozen people may have taken their own lives over the Horizon scandal and many more who were wrongly accused also contemplated suicide, an inquiry has found. Post Office bosses should have known Horizon was faulty but 'maintained the fiction that its data was always accurate' when prosecuting subpostmasters, the first tranche of a public inquiry's final report has concluded. Chairman Sir Wyn Williams said 'a number of senior' people at the organisation were aware the system, known as Legacy Horizon, was capable of error up until it was changed in 2010, with a number of employees also aware the updated system, Horizon Online, also had bugs and defects. The report added 'it is hard to exaggerate' the scale of the postmasters' suffering. Sir Wyn said: 'I should stress that whilst I cannot make a definitive finding that there is a causal connection between the deaths of all 13 persons and Horizon, I do not rule it out as a real possibility. 'It is also possible that more than 13 persons, as indicated by the Post Office in response to the inquiry's requests in March 2025, died by suicide but that some deaths have not been reported to the Post Office or the inquiry.' Sir Wyn also said ministers must take urgent action to compensate Post Office branch managers who were wrongly accused of theft during the Horizon scandal. 'I am persuaded that in the difficult and substantial claims, on too many occasions, the Post Office and its advisers have adopted an unnecessarily adversarial attitude towards making initial offers which have had the effect of depressing the level at which settlements have been achieved,' he wrote. Among the 19 recommendations made by Sir Wyn is a call for a new organisation to oversee redress for people wronged by all public bodies. It is hoped that such a body may help to avoid another historic miscarriage of justice in future. The Horizon scandal was vividly brought to life last year by the award-winning ITV drama Mr Bates vs The Post Office. More than 10,000 people are currently eligible for compensation, according to the 162-page Post Office Horizon IT Inquiry report published today. It adds that 59 postmasters contemplated or attempted suicide as a result of the scandal, and at least 13 people took their own lives. Last year, the Government vowed to provide victims with 'full and fair financial redress'. However, Sir Wyn said the phrase is unclear and ordered the government to explain what it means. Either way, it should pay victims damages 'at the top end' of what they could receive from a judge in the civil court, he said. And Sir Wyn has demanded a quick response from the Government - by October 10 at the latest. His 19 recommendations include: The Government and Post Office should agree on a definition of 'full and fair' compensation, and this should be followed when deciding the level of compensation to offer. Horizon victims should receive legal advice, funded by the Government. Close family members of people affected by the Horizon scandal should receive compensation. The Government should create a standing public body that will oversee financial redress for people who have been wronged by public bodies 'as soon as is reasonably practicable'. The Post Office, Government and Fujitsu - maker of the Horizon IT system - should outline a programme for 'restorative justice', which could allow victims to meet executives face-to-face. More than 700 sub-postmasters and mistresses were prosecuted between 2000 and 2015 for supposed shortfalls reported by the Horizon software, developed by Fujitsu. Thousands repaid accounting shortfalls that appeared in their accounts under threat of legal action. It was later proved in the High Court that the shortfalls were actually computer errors. Many victims were forced into bankruptcy and 236 were wrongly jailed. Others became seriously ill as a result of the stress and some died with the case hanging over them. One of those who died by his own hand was Martin Griffiths, 59, who ran a Post Office branch in Ellesmere Port, Cheshire. Shortfalls caused by Horizon started mounting up in 2009. The report says: 'He was made to feel that he was the only person who was having balancing problems.' Mr Griffiths was quizzed about the shortfalls at least twice by Post Office investigators, before being suspended without pay in 2011 and sacked in July 2013. Three months later, the took his own life. The report says: 'By the date of his death, Mr Griffiths had made very substantial repayments to the Post Office for alleged shortfalls. His parents contributed their life savings of £62,000.' Sir Wyn said that, despite the Government and Post Office appearing to show a genuine desire to give victims compensation, there have been 'formidable difficulties in the way of achieving those aims'. He said claimants to each of the four different compensation schemes did not receive full and fair redress. However, Sir Wyn rejected claims that Sarah Munby, a former permanent secretary at the Department for Business, had privately said the Government wanted to 'go slow' on delivering redress to postmasters. As of the end of April, 447 people had received preliminary payments, and 360 had opted for a fixed sum offer. The report criticises the lack of legal advice available to Horizon applicants. Sir Wyn said: 'I regard it as unconscionable and wholly unfair that claimants are unable to obtain legal advice, paid for by the [Government]. Yet the Department [of Business and Trade] continues to resist this as if its life depended upon it.' The report published today is only the first part. Others will scrutinise how much the Post Office and Fujitsu knew about the faulty Horizon system while postmasters were being wrongly accused. Sir Wyn said: 'No purpose would be served by HM Government or the Department delaying consideration of my recommendations until the remainder of my Report is delivered. 'The whole reason for delivering this volume of my report in advance of the remaining volume is that appropriate action in relation to the schemes for redress can be taken as soon as reasonably possible.'

France's EDF to invest $1.5 billion in Britain's Sizewell C nuclear project
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LONDON/PARIS July 8 (Reuters) - French nuclear energy utility EDF will invest around 1.1 billion pounds ($1.5 billion) in the Sizewell C nuclear project in Britain in which it is already a shareholder, the French presidency and British government said on Tuesday. The announcement was made during French President Emmanuel Macron's state visit to Britain, the first by a European leader since Brexit. Britain is seeking to build new nuclear plants to replace its ageing facilities to bolster energy security and its climate target of net zero emissions by 2050. Once operational, the Sizewell C plant is projected to generate enough electricity to power around 6 million homes. "This investment takes us a step closer to the benefits it will bring to the British people," British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said in a statement. State-owned EDF said its investment means it will have a 12.5% ​​stake in the project. EDF's latest annual report showed it held a 16.2% stake in the project at the end of 2024, which was equivalent to 652 million euros already invested. That stake was expected to change as the UK government increased its investment and as other investors join. Britain's government has already committed 17.8 billion pounds to the project but continues to look for additional investors. US-listed investment fund Brookfield has agreed to take a stake of more than 20% in the project in exchange for funds to finance the development of the nuclear plant, according to a source with knowledge of the deal. Brookfield declined to comment. British utility Centrica has previously said it would consider a stake in the project but has yet to announce any decision. A spokesperson for Centrica said the company does not comment on speculation about M&A or investments. The British government said it was in discussions with a range of potential investors which were commercially sensitive. "The UK Government will remain a significant shareholder in the project – ensuring we have oversight of the progress and limiting delays," the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero said in the press release. China General Nuclear Power Group (CGN) was initially set to develop the Sizewell C project alongside EDF but the UK government bought out the Chinese firm's stake in 2022 amid security concerns. Sizewell C would be the second new nuclear plant built in Britain in more than two decades, after EDF's Hinkley Point C, which faced several delays and cost overruns and is now expected to start operations in 2029, at an estimated cost of 31-34 billion pounds in 2015 prices. While the government has not said how much it expects the project to cost, EDF has previously said that Sizewell C would be around 20% cheaper than Hinkley C. ($1 = 0.7363 pounds)

‘Oldest' victim of Horizon IT scandal says ordeal ‘destroyed' her health
‘Oldest' victim of Horizon IT scandal says ordeal ‘destroyed' her health

North Wales Chronicle

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‘Oldest' victim of Horizon IT scandal says ordeal ‘destroyed' her health

Betty Brown, 92, from County Durham, ran the Annfield Plain Post Office near Stanley with her late husband Oswall, in the 1990s and early 2000s. She claims his death was impacted by the ordeal of missing hundreds of pounds each week in their accounts. Ms Brown told the PA news agency: 'We had a nice office, nice atmosphere, nice customers, and everything was fine, no problem. 'And then we were told about this wonderful advancement in technology, and we would get a system put in, called Horizon that would half the workload – which it didn't. 'So Horizon was put in, then the very first night, the balance was £500 short, but they thought something had been missed in the accounts or whatever and that was just let go. 'Then it began eventually that there was so many mistakes in the system that it was concerning, and these losses were coming out in amounts of £1,500, £1,600 every week, and we were having to put this money in and make it good, because that's what you sign up for.' Ms Brown said the ordeal caused her to lose her voice and said the anxiety it caused her husband disrupted his cancer treatment. He died a year after they sold the Post Office, which Ms Brown said she felt forced to do. 'Even my voice today isn't a voice that I had naturally,' she said. 'The stress, I lost my voice, and after retired, I had to go for elocution lessons, to learn to speak again so that people could understand me. 'The stress was unbelievable. You would go to bed at night and you couldn't sleep.' Ms Brown and her husband moved away from Annfield Plain to Consett after the ordeal. 'We couldn't live there (Annfield Plain) any longer, because the stigma was there and we kept a low profile. 'We didn't integrate into what the community. We kept ourselves apart. And when people would say to us, what did you do while you were working? 'You evaded the question, and you tried to change the subject.' Ms Brown continues her campaign for full compensation but said on Tuesday, after the first tranche of the Horizon inquiry's final report was published, that she had an 'amazing' day. 'Sir (Wyn) Williams has done a wonderful job,' Ms Brown said. 'He has felt the pain, he's felt the anxiety, he's felt the agony, he's felt everything that subpostmasters felt and he has been able to bring that with all his skill into a meaningful book. 'I hope that the Post Office will take this on board.'

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