Post Office statement on Southwark Crown Court appeals

Southwark Crown Court today (11 December 2020) formally acquitted six former postmasters, referred by the Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC) earlier this year, in uncontested appeals. The Post Office informed the Court and appellants in October that it would not oppose the appeals, which related to convictions in Magistrates’ Courts between 2003-2013, in which Post Office acted as prosecutor.

A Post Office spokesman said:

“Post Office did not oppose these appeals and sincerely apologises for historical failings. We have taken determined action to address the past, ensuring there is redress for those affected and to prevent such events ever happening again.

“Fundamental reforms have been made to forge a new relationship with postmasters, helping them to build thriving Post Office businesses for customers and communities throughout the UK.”

Actions taken by the Post Office include:

Agreement to appoint a current postmaster as Non-Executive Director to the Post Office Board to influence Post Office strategy and the implementation of programmes affecting postmasters.

Undertaking a programme of improvements to overhaul culture, practices and operating procedures throughout every part of the Post Office to forge an open and transparent relationship with our postmasters. Nearly 100 area managers now provide personalised, individual support to postmasters.

Comprehensive improvements made from initial recruitment and training through to daily transaction accounting, including design changes made to transactions on Horizon, based on postmaster feedback.

Increasing postmaster remuneration by £20 million a year on top of the £17 million increases secured for banking services through our new framework with the high street banks.

Establishing claims schemes to provide redress for former and current postmasters who experienced unexplained shortfalls in the past.

Historical convictions

Post Office has made strenuous efforts regarding historical convictions of postmasters. In addition to full co-operation with the Criminal Cases Review Commission’s review, it has set up an extensive disclosure exercise, by external criminal law specialists, to identify material which might affect the safety of any relevant historical prosecutions.

The Board of the Post Office carefully considered each case referred to the Courts by the CCRC and Post office announced on 2 October 2020 that it would not oppose the majority of appeals.

The six cases referred to Southwark Crown Court related to convictions in Magistrates’ Courts, which must be appealed to the Crown Court. An appeal from a Magistrates’ Court is a re-trial rather than a review of the original proceedings and, as Post Office did not oppose any of these appeals, the former postmasters were acquitted. This process does not require the court to issue a written judgment. 

Notes to editors:

Post Office is not opposing 44 of the 47 historical cases referred for appeal by the CCRC. The majority of the appeals relate to convictions in Crown Courts and therefore have been referred to the Court of the Appeal.

Post Office no longer undertakes any private prosecutions. Cases related to Horizon effectively ceased in 2013, although two cases featuring Horizon evidence were prosecuted in 2015.

Group Civil Litigation

Group civil litigation between Post Office and 589 mainly former postmasters concluded following successful mediation and agreed settlement in December 2019. A joint press statement was issued on 11 December 2019 by both parties involved in the litigation. The issues in the litigation were complex and involved contractual, operational and technical matters spanning around two decades.