This horror movie of a case of heartless and cowardly management at the Post Office and appalling decisions to continue to run a flawed legacy system.
See Timeline of events at:
For centuries, Royal Mail has been a cornerstone of British society, reliably connecting people and businesses across the nation.
But at one point, everything changed. A major decision reshaped the future of the UK’s postal service, sparking debates that continue to this day.
Supporters hailed it as a move toward innovation and efficiency, while critics warned of rising costs and service declines. Was this transformation truly necessary, and who stands to gain or lose from it?
In this blog, we unravel when Royal Mail privatised, the reasons it happened, and what it means for the future of Royal Mail.
Royal Mail’s privatisation was driven by a combination of financial struggles, market competition, and government policy changes. The UK government saw privatisation as a way to modernise operations and attract investment.
https://www.ukbusinessmagazine.co.uk/when-was-royal-mail-privatised/
The choice of flawed Horizon software supplied by Fujitsu resulted in IT ignorant managers and denial of faults in the Horizon software used by UK post offices. In turn, that led to a hideous debacle where the flawed software left a shortfall at the end of the working day at post offices and their postmaster and postmistresses took the fall for the corporate cowardice. They have suffered a 25 year ordeal of incompetent police investigations where ‘guilty’ was the judgement and the concept of innocence was never considered. The suffering of these defamed and honorable employees of Royal Mail is beyond belief.
https://www.reuters.com/world/uk/human-suffering-uk-post-office-scandal-laid-bare-report-2025-07-08/
Which government was in charge?
The Rt Hon Sir Tony Blair KG
- Labour 1997 to 2007
- The Rt Hon Gordon Brown
Labour 2007 to 2010 - The Rt Hon Lord Cameron
Conservative 2010 to 2016
David Cameron served as Prime Minister from 2010 to 2016, leading Britain’s first coalition government in nearly 70 years and, at the 2015 General Election, forming the first majority Conservative government in the UK for almost two decades. - Royal Mail was privatised by a coalition government, dominated by Conservatives, in October 2013.
In 1999, the Post Office’s single shareholder, the UK government, began automating accounting processes at about 14,000 Post Office branches. This saw the introduction of a centralised computer system from supplier Fujitsu, which all branches were connected to. This system replaced traditional paper-based accounting practices.
Computer Weekly cover from May 2009 when it first reported on the problems subpostmasters were having with the Horizon IT system
And now, in 2025, the sacrificial lambs, 900 sub-postmasters, are still testifying to countless inquiries and still, many are waiting (not all remain alive) for compensation which reflects their cruel suffering through no fault of their own.
July 8, 2025
Extract:
Public inquiry chair Wyn Williams said he was satisfied that Post Office executives knew, or at least should have known, that the IT system supplied by Fujitsu was capable of error but they maintained the fiction that it was accurate.
He called for urgent action to ensure full compensation in the first volume of his report.
Williams said it was impossible to ascertain exactly how many people had been impacted, but he said there were about 10,000 eligible claimants across four compensation schemes.
Detailing 17 first-hand accounts, Williams said suffering ranged from those held liable for small amounts of money to those who were wrongly imprisoned, fell seriously ill or were driven to despair and suicide.
Details of the full report are here:
https://www.postofficehorizoninquiry.org.uk/
Fujitsu bought LCL, the authors of the legacy Horizon Software in 1998.
First part of the UK Horizon IT Inquiry Report points finger at Post Office and Fujitsu managers who “should have known that Legacy Horizon was capable of error.”
At some point, however, this stopped being the case, the report said. The implication is that managers at Fujitsu and the Post Office knew that Horizon was generating imaginary shortfalls and decided to cover that up to protect themselves and their institutions.
This week’s findings are part one of the inquiry, and focus primarily on the human effects of the Horizon IT scandal. A second report is expected later in 2025 or in 2026 which will examine the specific flaws in the Horizon’s system in more detail. It will also assess any wrongdoing by managers………….
For the wider IT sector, the effects of the Horizon IT scandal could continue to linger. Large IT projects from the 1990s already have a poor reputation in the UK, with several going over budget or failing to deliver their expected returns. Horizon – now a watchword for incompetence and moral failure – has only amplified this widely held view.
Postmaster and postmistresses were obliged to accept the computer calculations although they complained that the system seemed to have a fault, their concerns were deliberately, and knowingly ignored.
Horizon
The scandal related to the wrongful prosecution of former sub-postmasters (people who run independent Post Office branches on behalf of Post Office Limited) for theft, fraud and false accounting between 1999 and 2015.
The IT system used in both independent and Crown Post Offices was called Horizon, operated by Fujitsu on behalf of Post Office. Horizon was piloted in some branches from 1996 and was rolled out across the network of branches from 1999.
By recording transactions, Horizon calculated how much cash and stock should be in an individual branch. The sub-postmaster was expected to count the cash held at their branch each day and enter a daily cash declaration onto Horizon.
If at the end of the relevant trading period (approximately each month) there was a discrepancy between the cash on hand and the figures generated by Horizon, the sub-postmaster was required by their contract to make up the difference.
This could be done either by settling in-branch by putting their own money in to balance the accounts or by settling centrally by asking for the money to be deducted from their monthly renumeration.
There was no option on Horizon to dispute the figures so a sub-postmaster was obliged to accept the figure generated by Horizon before rolling over to the next trading period.
The Financial Times reported another bad decision to buy, what turned out to be, slow and clunky replacement software, is now a £600m loss, equipment growing out of date, stacked in a warehouse.
https://www.ft.com/content/8bafec8a-ced0-4cbf-a0ca-c779168f3bc2
A comprehensive article in iNews provides an insight into the bug-ridden Horizon software:
As early as 2001, Mr McDonnell and his team identified “hundreds” of bugs.
Even when trials ran before Horizon’s launch in 1999, “severe difficulties being experienced by subpostmasters” were recorded, according to the House of Commons inquiry.
………..
The Dalmellington Bug
While a full list of bugs has yet to be published, a number have been singled out, including the Dalmellington Bug – named after the Scottish village where a Post Office operator first fell victim to the issue.
The Dalmellington Bug meant computer screens would freeze every time operators would try to confirm the receipt of cash.
The user would then often repeatedly hit the “Enter” key on the frozen screen. Each time the key was pressed, though, the system would acknowledge the receipt again.
On one occasion, when a user was continually trying to submit a payment of £8,000 in cash, they pressed the “Enter” key four times. The postmaster was then made liable for a £24,000 discrepancy, created by the Horizon bug
Examples of what happened at the Point of Sale computer when bugs caused frustrating problems when customers were waiting in the Post Office, are listed here:
https://inews.co.uk/news/how-post-office-horizon-it-system-failed-2846064
And a Czech billionaire has purchased the ailing Royal Mail now:
Czech Sphinx’ billionaire to become chairman of Royal Mail which led to:
Royal Mail’s boss has quit weeks after the postal service fell into foreign hands for the first time in its 509-year history.
In a move that caught the business world by surprise, Emma Gilthorpe left having been appointed chief executive a little over a year ago…….
- Investors approved EP Group’s £3.6bn takeover of owner IDS this month
Czech billionaire Daniel Kretinsky will become chairman of Royal Mail following confirmation of the postal service’s controversial takeover last month.
Kretinsky, an energy tycoon nicknamed the ‘Czech Sphinx’ for his inscrutable approach to his business decisions, swooped on Royal Mail’s parent company International Distribution Services with a £3.6billion offer last year
The group also revealed the UK Government has been allotted and issued a ‘golden share’ worth £1.
The golden share has no economic or voting rights but Royal Mail’s new owners require the prior written consent of the Government for some decisions.
It should ensure Royal Mail keeps its UK headquarters and continues to pay taxes in the country.
borderslynn 
You must be logged in to post a comment.