There must be a judge-led inquiry into the largest miscarriage of justice in UK history that saw over 900 prosecutions as a result of faults in the Post Office’s Horizon IT system, Shadow Technology Minister Chi Onwurah said today.
Last year, 550 claimants brought legal action over their treatment by the Post Office Ltd and won, but the majority of the damages they received were wiped out in legal costs.
The government announced they will undertake an independent review to ‘consider whether Post Office Ltd has learned lessons from the Horizon dispute and court case’, but questions about the scandal itself still remain unanswered.
Calling on the government to accelerate and strengthen an independent review into the Horizon scandal, Shadow Digital and Technology Minister Chi Onwurah MP said: “This scandal cannot be swept under the carpet. It was an appalling miscarriage of justice that saw hundreds of innocent, hard-working people falsely accused, bankrupted and imprisoned.
“The government finally announced an independent review but its scope is too limited and does not cover the failings in managerial and ministerial oversight. The Subpostmasters need the truth, not a tokenistic ‘lessons learned’ exercise that fails to hold anyone to account.
“These people, and their families, deserve to understand how this miscarriage of justice could have happened, and to receive proper vindication at last.”
