Post Office Inquiry: Horizon scandal drove 13 people to suicide, report finds

The report also concluded Post Office bosses knew the Horizon IT system was capable of errors, but had ‘maintained a fiction’ it was accurate, as ITV News Investigations Editor Daniel Hewitt reports

A damning report into the Post Office Horizon IT scandal has concluded that at least 13 people may have taken their own lives after being accused of wrongdoing.

The report, issued as part of the long-running inquiry into the faulty Horizon IT system used in Post Office branches, described the impact on subpostmasters as “disastrous” and said it heard evidence from 59 others who had also contemplated suicide as a result of the pressures from the scandal.

Approximately 1,000 subpostmasters were wrongfully prosecuted by the Post Office between 1999 and 2015 after the faulty Legacy Horizon software made it look as though money was missing from their accounts.

Tuesday’s 162-page report, written by inquiry chair Sir Wyn Williams, also concluded Post Office bosses knew the Horizon IT system had widespread faults, but had “maintained the fiction” it was accurate for years.

Sir Wyn said: “Although many of the individuals who gave evidence before me were very reluctant to accept it I am satisfied from the evidence that I have heard that a number of senior, or not so senior employees, of the Post Office knew or at the very least should have known that Legacy Horizon was capable of error.

“Yet, for all practical purposes, throughout the lifetime of Legacy Horizon, the Post Office maintained the fiction that its data was always accurate.”

The report also found the Legacy Horizon system’s 2010 replacement – known as Horizon Online – was also “afflicted by bugs” and that employees of Fujitsu and the Post Office “knew that this was so”.

It emphasised the human cost of the scandal and criticised the failure to provide adequate redress, following years of ambiguous and inconsistent financial compensation offers from the Post Office.

The inquiry estimates that as many as 10,000 people may have been affected by the Horizon scandal, including both convicted subpostmasters and those who experienced financial or reputational damage as a result of the system’s failures.

Sir Wyn described the attitude of the Post Office and its advisors in making compensation offers to victims as “unnecessarily adversarial” and added this has had “the effect of depressing the level of which settlements have been achieved”.

What does the report recommend?

Sir Wyn set out 19 recommendations, including:

Delays and lack of legal support: The report found serious failings in the four compensation schemes – the Horizon Shortfall Scheme (HSS), the (GLO) Scheme, the Overturned Convictions (OC) Scheme, and the Horizon Convictions Redress Scheme (HCRS) – highlighting that “the Post Office, the Department and Ministers simply failed to grasp” how hard timely redress would be. It criticised the refusal to fund legal advice under the HSS, saying the department “continues to resist this as if its life depended on it.”
Slow progress in GLO scheme: The GLO scheme, meant to compensate Alan Bates and other subpostmasters involved in litigation, was singled out as being “very slow”. Sir Wyn warned that compensation may not be settled by the end of 2026.
Call for clarity and fairness: The report urged the government to define what it means by “full and fair financial” redress and stated that compensation should reflect “the top end of the appropriate range of damages” a court might award.
Financial support for family: It called for a formal process to compensate close family members of those harmed by the Horizon scandal.
Broader redress system proposed: It recommended creating a permanent public body to oversee future financial redress for victims of state wrongdoing.

The report states that the government, Post Office and Fujitsu must provide a written response to the recommendations by October 10, 2025.

A Post Office spokesperson said: “The Inquiry has brought to life the devastating stories of those impacted by the Horizon Scandal. Their experiences represent a shameful period in our history.

“Today, we apologise unreservedly for the suffering which Post Office caused to postmasters and their loved ones. We will carefully consider the report and its recommendations.”

The government is expected to give is a statement in the House of Commons later on Tuesday.

Post Office Minister, Gareth Thomas, said: “I welcome the Inquiry’s publication today and pay tribute to Sir Wyn and his team for their comprehensive and penetrating work.

“We must never lose sight of the Horizon Scandal’s human impact on postmasters and their families, which the Inquiry has highlighted so well.

“Sir Wyn’s report highlights a series of failings by the Post Office and various governments. His recommendations are immensely helpful as a guide for what is needed to finish the job, and we will respond in full to Parliament after carefully considering them.”