Mr Bates vs The Post Office

Written By: - Date published: 6:54 am, February 5th, 2024 - 12 comments
Categories: tech industry, uk politics - Tags: , , ,

Originally published on Nick Kelly’s blog

Many question the value of the performing arts and drama. At the start of 2024, the ITV drama Mr Bates vs The Post Office did what journalists, politicians and broader civil society have failed to do over the last 25 years. It raised public awareness of the injustice faced by the postmasters employed by Post Office Limited. Many postmasters, forced to use the Horizon computer system were falsely accused of stealing post office money. In fact, Horizon, built and maintained by Fujitsu, was faulty and produced inaccurate reports.

There is much more to say about the twists and turns of this case, too long for one blog post. It is better to watch the ITV drama to get a decent overview. Needless to say in the 6 and a half years I have lived in London, the Horizon Post Office scandal has featured regularly in the news. While some convictions were eventually overturned, many still await justice. It has taken an ITV drama to force the Government and the Post Office into action.

Three broader issues arise from this case:

  1. Justice delayed is justice denied
  2. The need for greater accountability of big tech companies
  3. The worrying precedent of overturning convictions through legislation

Point one is fairly self-explanatory. Many of the postmaster convictions date back to the early 2000s. Yet many are waiting years to get their day in court to clear their name. This is not unusual. For those impacted by the contaminated blood scandal, where people were given contaminated blood in the 1970s and 1980s, many are still waiting for adequate compensation. Another is the Hillsborough disaster where a football stand collapsed killing 79 people and injuring 766. It took many families 30+ years for compensation for the crime, and in that case, the subsequent police cover-up. Horizon and the contaminated blood scandals were state-initiated corporate crimes, and Hillsborough was a state-facilitated corporate crime. In all three examples, many of those affected have died before receiving a penny of compensation.

On point two, this is a growing problem. In a week where Mark Zuckerburg at a US Senate hearing was forced to apologise to families whose children had been harmed online, the calls for greater regulation of tech companies are growing. Increasingly social media platforms will find themselves regulated. But the big tech companies providing the software organisations like post offices now rely on to function, remain largely unpoliced. This is because by and large, they are the only ones who really understand how their programmes work. We rely on them as the experts, which makes it hard to scrutinise or regulate. When the Horizon produced false reports and Fujitsu said it was the postmasters, the Post Office struggled to prove otherwise (though made little attempt at doing so either). Some were expressing concern about Horizon as early as 1999, yet proving the issues or finding replacement software proved near impossible. Even after the ITV drama, in 2024 the Post Office is still using Horizon, though promise it will be replaced later this year.

The Government’s response to this has been to pass legislation quickly that overturns all convictions related to the Horizon scandal. Given how overloaded the court system is, it would take many more years to hear all the cases. In an election year, this would not be acceptable to voters. But this sets a worrying precedent. Firstly, whilst a great many of those convicted during the Horizon scandal were innocent, in all likelihood were will be some who were not.

On point three, governments overruling the courts is never a good thing. The independence of the judiciary is crucial in a democracy so that the rule of law is not undermined by the government of the day for political gain. This is what makes the UK Government’s latest efforts to overturn the Rwanda ruling through legislation so concerning. It is a slippery slope to what is happening in Hungary under Prime Minister Vicktor Orban where courts will now be directly overseen by the government. Similar policies have been pursued by hard-right governments in Poland and India.

The postmaster legislation is not doing this. It is a well-intentioned action aimed at fixing a longstanding injustice. But it could set a precedent for future governments to overturn other court decisions, and over time undermine the independence of the judiciary. If this happens, the legacy of the postmaster-horizon scandal will be felt for many more years to come.

12 comments on “Mr Bates vs The Post Office ”

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  1. Bearded Git 1
    5 February 2024 at 1:46 pm

    Private Eye broke this story over 20 years ago and has been banging on about it ever since-I have many copies detailing the travails of the Post Office managers/owners.

    It is scandalous that Private Eye's key role has not been recognised, though I did (finally) hear a PE journalist interviewed about it on BBC Radio 5 Live 3-4 weeks ago.

  2. roblogic 2
    5 February 2024 at 2:22 pm

    Retroactive legislation is simply wallpaper over a systemic problem in the UK, which is the iron grip of austerity/ neoliberal economics, that means IT projects are half baked, and the justice system is clogged up, and government officials are never held to account for their abuse of power

    The Tories passed the law to make the problem go away, so they don't have to take responsibility. It's a good first step but the Government and the Post Office really need to take the remedial actions directed by the statutory inquiry

  3. Ghostwhowalks 3
    5 February 2024 at 4:41 pm

    While its pointed out the government-judicial irregularity of over turning convictions by Act of Parliament

    What wasnt mentioned was the prosecution irregularity in the the Post office itself was the prosecutor in 700 of the cases.

    I didnt know about Private Eye breaking the story – Its well accepted it was Computer Weekly – May 2009- that did so – it was new software system from Fujitsu ( who bought out the previously UK ICL systems business)

    This is well after 2010

    https://www.private-eye.co.uk/pictures/special_reports/justice-lost-in-the-post.pdf

  4. Ad 4
    5 February 2024 at 5:19 pm

    +100

    Great to see effective activist drama

  5. roblogic 5
    5 February 2024 at 5:21 pm

    hey admins my earlier comment seems to be stuck in moderation.. what’s up?

    • weka 5.1
      6 February 2024 at 11:44 am

      sorry, it was just on this post, don’t know why all comments were being held back, but should be ok now.

  6. Ad 6
    6 February 2024 at 7:32 am

    +100 here's to activist drama with a great result

  7. James 7
    6 February 2024 at 9:53 am

    Accountability for the requirements of any software solution resides with the customer / purchaser. The software company is responsible for meeting the requirements with this being validated by client side testing and validations. While there can be other warrantees and guarantees in software contracts these do not invalidate the need for the purchaser to define and validate their own needs. The UK Post Office was clearly negligent in this case and should take the bulk of the blame for this scandal. The does not mean that Fujitsu is off the hook, and shouldn’t be taking to task to breaching contract terms ( in so far that they have). It will be very hard to hold them accountable however in a court of law if the UK Post office hasn’t managed their side effectively.

    • Obtrectator 7.1
      6 February 2024 at 4:34 pm

      Agree entirely. During my time in the IT trade I saw and heard of far too many instances where the attitude of the client was "just get on and build the thing". The fiddly stuff could be sorted out later. They could never seem to appreciate the cost and difficulty of changing their requirements halfway through the project. Learning materials for business-analysis systems and procedures were stiff with case-studies illustrating the dangers of doing that, but you just couldn't get it through to some folk.

  8. weka 8
    6 February 2024 at 12:21 pm

    ok, so now I know that replying from the back end to a comment that has been deleted will still show up.

  9. Tiger Mountain 9
    6 February 2024 at 5:06 pm

    A great example of old school Pom TV. Good actors, drama toned down to a reasonably natural and human level. My territory is community action, under funded fight backs etc. so the mini series was authentic and uplifting despite the grim E01.

    The Post Execs really reminded of some of the NZ SOE ones that colleagues have met over the years.

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