There is an unbelievable story sweeping the UK. It’s a battle that’s been going on for more than 20 years, but it has more recently leaped with ferocity into the public consciousness due to the an ITV produced mini series called ‘Mr Bates vs. The Post Office‘. The final episode of the four part series has now been viewed over 10 million times; in other words, more than 15% of the country has seen it.
The context is in the late 90s, the Post Office, which is a state-owned enterprise, procured and launched a piece of software developed by Fujitsu called Horizon. The Horizon software manages financial transactions and accounting for more than 11,000 post offices around the UK.
Due to a bug in the Horizon system, the end of day cash balances for many post offices were incorrect. Rather than balancing, they showed a shortfall. The people running these post offices, called subpostmasters, repeatedly complained to the Post Office that there was an error with the software, but no action was taken. Instead, the Post Office fired many for their cash shortfalls, and convicted hundreds for fraud, theft, and false accounting. Four of these subpostmasters even committed suicide due to a combination of stress, financial hardship, and shame.
It’s hard to imagine that such a large miscarriage of justice can happen in the UK, but the evidence is clear—it happened.
A few things baffle me more than others. First is the deliberate cover-up from Post Office executives and their refusal to acknowledge the issue. Second is how not a single executive from the Post Office has found themselves in any hot water over the Horizon failure. And finally, the tragedy that many subpostmasters are still fighting for full compensation; a full twenty years after their quest for justice began.
This miniseries is a great example of media launching this issue back into the spotlight. I sincerely hope that its success helps earn justice and restitution for the honest, hard-working subpostmasters, and that it serves as a lesson so that nothing of the sort is repeated.