Post Office costs defending itself at Horizon inquiry exceed £130m
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Company’s annual report shows costs of £132m up to March 2024 in inquiry that ended this week. Post Office executives have spent more than £130m of taxpayers’ money defending the company at the long-running inquiry into the wrongful prosecution of more than 900 workers, figures show.
The company’s annual report reveals that the company’s legal and running costs from the start of the inquiry in September 2020 until 31 March 2024 total £132m, more than half of which – £82m – was spent in the last financial year alone. The inquiry into the Horizon IT scandal only ended this week, and these figures do not include money spent on legal costs since 31 March.
In his closing statement to the inquiry this week, the government’s lawyer Nick Chapman said “weak and arrogant” Post Office executives who were “culpably dishonest” and had a culture of “contempt” towards branch operators were primarily responsible for the scandal, and he said the company had played a “despicable” role in the largest miscarriage of justice in British history.
While he singled out the Post Office, he also blamed ministers, the software’s developer Fujitsu, the federation representing post office operators, and agencies such as UKGI, which manages the taxpayer’s stake in the Post Office, saying they had all “contributed to this scandal”.
The Post Office chair, Nigel Railton, in his statement reiterated his “profound apologies” to the victims. “The inquiry’s examinations of the past have laid bare severe failings that caused terrible harm to the lives of postmasters,” he said. “We face up to these and, and we will learn the lessons so that we can build a Post Office fit for the future, fundamentally changed and with postmasters at its heart.”.
