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

Data last updated: 20 May 2026 · Source · Data verified: 18 Jun 2026 (Claude)

Key facts

Duration (ongoing): 5 years, 2 months Total cost: £80m Witnesses: 114 Hearing days: 96 Statements: 303

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

26 Feb 2020 Inquiry announced The Prime Minister committed to an independent inquiry into the Horizon IT system, established on a non-statutory basis. · 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 Human impact hear… Human impact hearings commenced.

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

17 Jul 2023 Interim report on… Sir Wyn Williams laid before Parliament his first interim report, on the compensation schemes. · Source

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

Show all 12 milestones

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

17 Dec 2024 Hearings conclude Closing statements ended the oral hearings, which ran across Phases 1 to 7 from February 2022. · Source

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

08 Jul 2025 Final report Volu… Volume 1 of the final report, on the human impact of the scandal and redress, was laid before … · Source

Recommendations

1 shown (filtered)

Code	Recommendation	Addressed to	Response
POH-17	Establish standing public body to administer future redress schemes As soon as is reasonably practicable, HM Government shall establish a standing public body which shall, when called upon to do so, …	Department for Business and Trade	Under Consideration	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