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The Post Office scandal’s Postcode Lottery
Read More…: The Post Office scandal’s Postcode LotteryVictims of the Post Office Scandal are being treated differently in Scotland to those in England and Wales. The revelation has come through the work of the Horizon Compensation Advisory Board, an advisory panel which has alerted the government to the Post Office scandal’s own postcode lottery. Professor Chris Hodges, the chair of the Horizon Compensation Advisory Board, has written to Darren Jones, the current Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster and Chief Secretary to the outgoing Prime Minister, urging action to deal with several outstanding problems related to the Post Office scandal. Two relate to different treatment of convicted…
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MacLeod and Gould prosecuted by the Solicitors Regulation Authority
Read More…: MacLeod and Gould prosecuted by the Solicitors Regulation AuthorityTwo solicitors with very different roles in the Post Office Horizon IT scandal are being prosecuted by the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) and will face a Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal (SDT). An SDT has the power to permanently remove an individual’s right to practice as a solicitor and leverage unlimited fines. Jane MacLeod is former General Counsel at the Post Office, which meant she was the top internal lawyer within the organisation. She took the post in January 2015. In April 2019 the interim Chief Executive of the Post Office Alisdair Cameron told her she was being sacked over her disastrous…
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The Battle for Brisbane
Read More…: The Battle for BrisbaneThe Post Office has claimed it should not make public crucial documents written six years ago, partly on the grounds doing so could compromise the organisation’s capacity to receive a fair trial, should it ever face criminal proceedings over the Horizon IT scandal. Project Brisbane is a top-secret exercise conducted in 2020 by the Post Office’s then-lawyers Herbert Smith Freehills. It is legally privileged, which means the Post Office cannot normally be forced to hand it over to the courts or even police investigators. Today, in an information tribunal, the Post Office said handing over Brisbane “risks harming the Post…
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Post Office Inquiry final report delayed yet again
Read More…: Post Office Inquiry final report delayed yet againThe final report of the Post Office Horizon IT Inquiry has been delayed once more. Although no publication date was ever formally announced, the process is taking longer than anticipated, and participants have been told we are now highly unlikely to see the final report delivered to parliament before September this year. In early 2025 I was told by sources close to the Inquiry that the Chair, Sir Wyn Williams, initially hoped to publish his final report in full in December 2025. Sir Wyn published volume one of the final report (dealing with human impact and compensation) in July 2025.…
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Shoreham, Ropetackle Arts Theatre 2 July: The Great Post Office Cover-Up
Read More…: Shoreham, Ropetackle Arts Theatre 2 July: The Great Post Office Cover-UpOn Thursday 2nd July I will be delivering my first (and so far only) public talk this year on the Post Office scandal. It will be at the Ropetackle Arts Theatre in Shoreham-by-Sea and I’m very much looking forward to it. A lot has happened since we did that run of dates in 2024. I have written another book (the as-yet-unpublished The Great Post Office Cover-Up), which has given me a whole new insight into the scandal, and I am looking forward to sharing those insights with you, if you can make it down to the South Coast. You can…
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Post Office’s Jane MacLeod “significant individual” in criminal investigation
Read More…: Post Office’s Jane MacLeod “significant individual” in criminal investigationThe detectives running the investigation into possible criminal activity at the Post Office have indicated that former Post Office General Counsel, Jane MacLeod, is a “significant individual” to their criminal investigation. Operation Olympos is a long-running police investigation formed in the wake of the Bates v Post Office civil litigation. It used to be headed up by the Metropolitan Police, but since 2024 it has been led by the National Police Chiefs Council. The inference about MacLeod was made during an NPCC remote briefing for victims of the scandal which was held yesterday and hosted by Commander Stephen Clayman and…
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More info is revealed about Project Brisbane
Read More…: More info is revealed about Project BrisbaneI am once more grateful to Eleanor Shaikh and Matthew Somerville for bringing important information into the public domain. Matthew runs the “Dracos” Inquiry website which mirrors the Post Office Horizon IT Inquiry website whilst making every document on it searchable. There is a manual element to Matthew’s work, which involves scanning the Inquiry website for new uploads. Over the weekend Matthew ran his first full scan since January and found 4,000 new documents had been uploaded to the official site. Eleanor Shaikh immediately started searching for more mentions of the mysterious 2020 report known as Project Brisbane, compiled by…
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Another Compensation Scheme Gets Another Appeal Mechanism
Read More…: Another Compensation Scheme Gets Another Appeal MechanismA new appeal mechanism for applicants to the (now closed) Post Office Horizon Shortfall Scheme (HSS) has been announced by the government. This follows a direct recommendation from the Chair of the Post Office Horizon IT Inquiry in July last year. The HSS was first announced in 2020. In those days it was called the Historical Shortfall Scheme. It was ill-conceived and beset with disaster from off. More here. In March 2024, the government announced that applicants to the HSS could accept a £75,000 fixed award, rather than wait to have their compensation claim assessed. The way the £75,000 was…
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Project Brisbane – a report the Post Office is desperate to keep secret
Read More…: Project Brisbane – a report the Post Office is desperate to keep secretIn January 2022 the researcher Eleanor Shaikh was poring over some written evidence submitted by the Business Department (then known as BEIS) to the Business Select Committee in March 2020. In an annex to the evidence, there was a timeline. One line of the timeline read: “September 2015: The Post Office Minister commissions POL’s new Chair to undertake a review of POL’s Horizon system and handling of postmaster issues. Support is provided by a QC.” [POL stands for Post Office Ltd. A QC is a senior barrister – a Queen’s Counsel – nowadays known as a KC]. Eleanor has read…
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Redress scheme for families of Post Office victims announced
Read More…: Redress scheme for families of Post Office victims announcedThe government has today announced a new compensation scheme for families of those affected by the Post Office scandal. It looks to have support from at least one victims’ group and the Horizon Compensation Advisory Board, an independent body which has done quite a bit to shape government thinking about this scandal. The scheme is called the Horizon Family Members Redress Scheme, and it is, according to the government “expected to open in summer 2026”. The Business Department says the scheme is “designed to be as accessible and straightforward as possible – minimising bureaucratic barriers so that families receive redress without delay.”…
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