Public Inquiry

Post Office Horizon IT Inquiry

Status: Ongoing Chair: Sir Wyn Williams Established: Jun 2021 Commissioned by: Department for Business and Trade

Public inquiry into the Post Office Horizon IT scandal, examining how more than 900 sub-postmasters were wrongly prosecuted based on faulty Fujitsu software between 1999 and 2015.

Response breakdown

27 recommendations total

70%

22%

19 (70%) — Accepted

6 (22%) — Accepted in Part

1 (4%) — Not Accepted

1 (4%) — Under Review

Reports & milestones

Reports

17 Jul 2023 8 tracked recs First Interim Report: Compensation · Tracked recommendations · PDF

08 Jul 2025 19 tracked recs Post Office Horizon IT Inquiry: Final Report · Tracked recommendations · PDF

Timeline

19 Feb 2020 Inquiry Establish… Initially non-statutory inquiry established. · Source

01 Sep 2020 Chair Appointed Sir Wyn Williams appointed as Chair.

01 Jun 2021 Converted to Stat… Inquiry converted to statutory public inquiry with power to compel witnesses.

14 Feb 2022 Hearings Begin Human impact hearings commenced.

15 May 2023 Phase 4 Hearings Phase 4 examining Fujitsu's role began.

08 Jan 2024 Phase 6 Hearings Phase 6 examining Post Office Ltd began.

13 May 2024 Phase 7 Hearings Phase 7 examining Government, UKGI and Royal Mail Group.

30 Jun 2025 Final Report Expe… Chair Sir Wyn Williams expected to publish final report. · Source

Recommendations

8 shown (filtered)

Code	Recommendation	Addressed to	Response
POH-IR1-1	Allow Advisory Board to monitor individual compensation cases The Horizon Compensation Advisory Board should not be prevented from monitoring individual cases in which compensation has been or is to be …	Department for Business and Trade	Accepted in Part	View →
POH-IR1-2	Publish Advisory Board meeting reports within 21 days The Horizon Compensation Advisory Board shall produce written reports in respect of each of their meetings in relation to each of the …	Department for Business and Trade	Accepted	View →
POH-IR1-3	Make monitoring full and fair compensation a core Board duty It must be one of the core duties of the Horizon Compensation Advisory Board that it monitors whether compensation payments are full …	Department for Business and Trade	Accepted in Part	View →
POH-IR1-4	Increase Advisory Board membership if needed for capacity If the Horizon Compensation Advisory Board considers it necessary, the number of persons appointed to the Board should be increased so as …	Department for Business and Trade	Accepted	View →
POH-IR1-5	Seek court directions for GLO compensation in bankruptcy cases DBT shall take such steps as are necessary within 28 days of the publication of this report to seek appropriate directions under …	Department for Business and Trade	Accepted	View →
POH-IR1-6	Publish proposals for equal tax treatment of compensation payments DBT shall publish within 28 days of the publication of this report its proposals for ensuring that applicants to all schemes are …	Department for Business and Trade	Accepted	View →
POH-IR1-7	Amend Limitation Act to extend GLO deadline if needed HM Government shall bring forward as soon as possible legislation amending section 11(3)(a) of the Limitation Act 1980 to allow payments of …	Department for Business and Trade	Accepted in Part	View →
POH-IR1-8	Set agreed closing date for Horizon Shortfall Scheme applications No applications for compensation to the Horizon Shortfall Scheme shall be entertained after such date as shall be agreed by the Minister, …	Department for Business and Trade	Accepted in Part	View →

Parliamentary activity

34 mentions since Jan 2022

2 debates 26 questions

11 Nov 2025 Written Question Post Office Horizon IT Inquiry
Dr Al Pinkerton (Liberal Democrat)

13 Oct 2025 Written Question Fujitsu: Contracts
John Milne (Liberal Democrat)

17 Jul 2025 Hansard Debate Post Office Horizon Inquiry: Volume 1

14 Jul 2025 Written Question Procurement: Standards
Baroness Ritchie of Downpatrick (Labour)

View all 34 mentions →

Costs

Total: £80,000,000

Period	Total	Inquiry legal	CP legal	Source
Mar 2026 (cum.)	£80,000,000	£24,455,048	£15,904,255	link
Mar 2025	£26,017,032	£8,738,949	£5,202,243	link
Mar 2024	£26,770,510	£8,373,766	£6,150,587	link
Mar 2023	£18,491,383	£5,717,654	£3,905,857	link
Mar 2022	£3,087,287	£1,492,280	£645,569	link
Mar 2021	£360,345	£132,399	—	link