Anger at the Palace of Westminster

Hi everyone

I went up to Westminster on Tuesday last week for an occasion hosted by Lord (Prem) Sikka. It was a ticketed but open event without much direction other than to gather interested parties together for a discussion about the Post Office scandal.

In the photo above from left to right you can see Chris Head OBE, Lord Taylor, Stuart Goodwillie (Monsieur Cholet for those who know him on X/twitter), Janet Skinner, Lord Sikka, Katie Burrows and Sarah Freebury (both from Lost Chances) and Lord Arbuthnot. On Lord Sikka’s immediate left, and obscured by him, is Lord Beamish, better known as Kevan Jones who was obviously just leaning back to hear Janet speak.

There were plenty of contributions from the floor, mainly from Subpostmasters, and a good discussion was had.

Initially I wasn’t quite sure of the point of the exercise, but as it progressed I realised it was about three things – firstly, a chance for people affected by this scandal to make themselves heard in front of journalists, MPs and peers (in a rather grand setting, too – who gets to speak at the Palace of Westminster very often?). Secondly it was an opportunity to re-motivate everybody, and thirdly it was a great occasion to network, swap contacts and have useful conversations with everyone present.

The date had some added poignancy as Lord Sikka noted it was exactly six years since the Horizon Issues judgment was handed down at the High Court.

Hearing the anger and still raw emotion from those present was a reminder of just how difficult life still is for many people. The first bit of gossip I picked up was that Janet Skinner has become (afaik) the third person to sue the Post Office along with Lee Castleton and Teju Adedeyo. Sky News duly got the story out that evening.

Sky hadn’t noticed Teju’s action as they said Janet was believed to be only the second person to sue the Post Office over their failure to deliver proper compensation. That’s not a criticism – I was only tipped off the day before via someone who trawls a lot of court filings. Teju wasn’t present on Tuesday and wasn’t available to do an interview about it.

Both Janet and Teju’s actions were filed on 12 Dec and all three Subpostmasters are represented by SMB solicitors and Paul Marshall. Both Simon Goldberg from SMB and Paul Marshall attended last Tuesday to hear what was said in the Committee Room.

The 2006 contract between Fujitsu and the Post Office

Both Channel 4 News and the BBC are among the outlets to produce news items this week about a 2006 contract between Fujitsu and the Post Office, which saw Fujitsu agreeing to fines if it couldn’t properly reconcile financial information generated by the Horizon IT system.

The document was cited by Fujitsu boss Paul Patterson in his written evidence to the Post Office Horizon IT inquiry in 2024, but was only published on the Inquiry website this month. It was spotted by Stuart Goodwillie, who alerted Paul Marshall and Ron Warmington.

The most damning paragraph references that running sore, remote access, stating:

“If the Reconciliation Service identifies that any Transaction data held on the ‘central database’ located at the Data Centre is found to be inconsistent when compared to the records of the Transaction that was completed at the Branch, e.g. a receipt, a Transaction log or a Branch accounting discrepancy, the Reconciliation Service shall obtain authorisation from Post Office prior to amending the centrally held Transaction data.“

I wonder how many times that happened. Either way it’s another example of the Post Office’s awareness of Fujitsu’s capacity to alter transaction data at will. In this case it is clear, explicit and formally tied up in a neat contractual bow.

You can read and download the contract in full here. It’s only 26 pages long. For those of you who use LinkedIn, Monsieur Cholet has pointed me in the direction of a good fisking of its content by Brian Rogers, who works in regulatory law for the Access Group.

MPs will have an opportunity to ask Mr Patterson and Nigel Railton of the Post Office about their 2006 Horizon agreement on 6 January next year at a Business Select Committee hearing, though I suspect the headlines may be stolen – if the rumours are true – by Fujitsu announcing some form of compensation fund for scandal victims.

A message from the Horizon Scandal Fund

The Horizon Scandal Fund charity (of which I am a trustee) has put a Christmas message on its website. I am deeply indebted to my fellow trustees – Eleanor, Varchas, Sandra, Nicola, David and Helen – for their hard work this year. All have devoted a significant amount of time to keeping everything running smoothly and I pay tribute to their work ethic and determination to do the very best for everyone who applies to the fund.

Regrettably I have been somewhat MIA on charitable duties for most of this year, but I hope next year, with the book finished, I can become more involved.

Do have a read of the short message from the trustees and do please let people (including family members of those affected by the Horizon scandal) know they can request grants for cash to help with almost anything – from legal fees to counselling to hardship payments, even to a short respite break or social event with other people affected by the scandal. Travel and accommodation doesn’t come cheap, and we would be only too delighted to help former Subpostmasters and their families meet up.

The whole process is usually quick and always completely confidential. We remain deeply grateful to everyone who has donated to the fund over the past year. Every penny is very much appreciated and goes directly to people in need.

Oxford in the Springtime

If you want to spend some time in Oxford next year, I will be interviewing the Private Eye journalist Richard Brooks about his new book Post Mortem at the Oxford Literary Festival.

This is scheduled at the eye-wateringly early time of 10am on Saturday 21 March in Lecture Theatre 3 of the Oxford University Mathematical Institute, which sounds nothing if not glamorous. Buy your tickets here.

I will be asking Richard for his take on the scandal as well as a few questions about his day job at Private Eye, including “What is Ian Hislop really like?” just to annoy him. Richard is a wonderful man, a diligent, superb journalist and a great talker, too, so I’m looking forward to seeing him again.

For those of you who might be interested in making something of a day of it in Oxford, you might want to consider coming along to another session I am hosting, this time talking to the celebrated, decorated media lawyer Louis Charalambous, who I first came across when I was covering the Johnny Depp libel trial in London in 2020. I am interviewing Louis at 12pm at the Weston Lecture Theatre immediately following my chat with Richard Brooks. Buy your tickets for that, here.

Louis has written a book called “Better Call Louis: Adventures in the Media Jungle” (full disclosure – printed by my publishers’ Cinto imprint) about his life as a media lawyer. It covers his work on the Depp trial as well as plenty of other really interesting subjects – The Birmingham Six, Andrew and Fergie, Diana and that Panorama, Andrew Mitchell and Plebgate, the much-wronged Christopher Jeffries plus the difficulties of trying to get people to testify against gangsters and more. As you can see from the photo above I have both books in my office and I am going to spend the Christmas period reading them with my new glasses.

Clocking off

Thanks to everyone who has written a note, sent a message, tipped me off about an angle on this story or booked me to speak at some of the few events I’ve allowed myself to attend this year. If you want me to come and talk to your company about the Post Office scandal in 2026 I would be delighted. Just hit reply to this email and we can sort it out.

I’m going to double down on the book in January, too, so it’s ready to go as soon as we get the Inquiry report.

Finally, please look out for a special investigation I’ve done with the Mail on Sunday YOU magazine which comes out on 28 December (marking two years on from the TV drama Mr Bates v Post Office).

Rather than focus on the victims of the scandal, I went looking for some of the people on the other side of the fence at the Post Office, Fujitsu and the NFSP. Hopefully it will make for an absorbing read.

Have a great Christmas and thanks once more for all your support. It means a lot!

Very best

Nick

I am (still) writing a new book about the Post Office scandal called The Great Post Office Cover-Up. You can put your money down now for a copy which will arrive after Sir Wyn Williams’ final report. Buying a pre-publication copy of the hardback (£15 + P&P) or paperback (£10 + P&P) will be cheaper than the post publication price, help support an independent publisher (by buying direct) and offer you the opportunity to join my secret email mailing list. For more info about the book, click here!