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.”
The Post Office said it had made provisions of £816m for “exceptional expenses” in the year to 31 March 2024, including for its legal and running costs, as well as money to be spent on compensation and overturned convictions. Its pre-tax losses increased by £81m to £612m, while its debts have ballooned to more than the value of its assets.
The government said on Tuesday that more former post office branch owners would be eligible for compensation, after an independent report found IT accounting software developed by the Post Office that was used between 1992 and 1999 may also have been faulty.
The Post Office pursued prosecutions on theft and false accounting charges, or post office operators were forced to make up shortfalls with their own money, according to the report on the Capture accounting software.
The publication of the findings of the public inquiry are expected to be published next year.
