The police have spent £7,246,000 since 2020 investigating possible crimes committed by Post Office and Fujitsu execs relating to the Horizon scandal. In five years the detectives working for Operation Olympos have conducted a total of seven interviews with four people. No arrests have been made.

The investigation began shortly after the judge in the Bates v Post Office high court litigation announced he had such “grave concern” at the evidence given by Fujitsu employees in criminal and civil cases against Subpostmasters, and he was passing a file to the Director of Public Prosecutions. This he did, and the DPP gave the file to the Met. In January 2020, the Met began Operation Olympos.

The investigation expanded significantly last year and became a joint effort co-ordinated between the Met and the National Police Chiefs’ Council. Op Olympos now has 102 people working on it across various police forces. It is currently burning through more than three quarters of a million pounds a month. Costs for 2025/26 are expected to be more than £10m. The Home Office has separately spent £1.3m assisting Op Olympos since 2023.

This information has been given to me by the National Police Chiefs’ Council after a protracted series of requests dating back three years. It is an update on figures dug out under a Freedom of Information request by a campaigner reported in Computer Weekly earlier this year.

The breakdown of the costs are as follows:

Financial year	Police spending
2019/2020	£168,000
2020/2021	£238,000
2021/2022	£435,000
2022/2023	£699,000
2023/2024	£1,312,000
2024/2025	£4,394,000
2025/2026	£10.2m (projected)

In what will soon be a six year investigation, only four people have been called in for questioning. Seven interviews have been conducted in total. A man and woman, both in their 60s (believed to be Fujitsu engineers Gareth Jenkins and Anne Chambers), were interviewed under caution in late 2021. A man in his 60s was interviewed under caution in late 2024 and a man in his 60s was interviewed earlier this year. The police say “no arrests have been necessary given the interviews made under caution”.

I can’t help thinking they’d get somewhere quicker if they got a lot more than four people with questions to answer down the nick to ask some hard questions. Documents can’t point fingers – people can. The police say:

“Op Olympos is investigating the actions of 50 individuals over almost a 20-year period. This is by its very nature a methodical, painstaking, and detailed investigation. No charging decisions can be made until the full report from the Public Inquiry is released and fully reviewed.”

The Inquiry is now not expected to produce its final report until next year. The police have previously indicated they do not expect to lay any criminal charges before the 50 individuals under investigation until 2027 at the earliest. All they will say now is that “a number early advice case files have been compiled, ensuring that over time, we will be ready to submit for charging decisions.”

Op Olympos is being run by “Gold” Commander Stephen Clayman, overseen by a “Platinum” Group, led by the NPCC Chair, Chief Constable Gavin Stephens. Clayman is expected to surface in December to tell Subpostmaster groups and journalists the latest on the investigation. Last year Clayman told ITV News his investigation was sifting through 1.5m documents, focusing on the crimes of perjury and perverting the course of justice.

At this rate we’re unlikely to see any former Post Office or Fujitsu employee on trial before 2029 at the earliest. The Horizon IT system was rolled out in 1999. The Post Office started hiding miscarriages of justice in 2013.

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