WITNO09890205
WITNO9890205
® Information Rights Team
Post Office Limited
Your reference:
Our reference: FOI2022/00304
Will Powell —
request-857047-fd16c621{
17 May 2022
Dear Will Powell,
Freedom of Information Request — FOI2022/00304
I am writing in response to your email received by Post Office Limited (“Post Office”) on
26 April, that has been dealt with under the terms of the Freedom of Information Act 2000
(“FOIA”) in which you requested the following:
Please confirm how many criminal prosecutions took place against Postmasters and
Postmistresses for fraud and/or false accounting in the 10 years prior to the introduction
of the ‘Horizon IT Computer System'?
I can confirm that Post Office holds some information in relation to this. The Horizon IT
system was introduced in 1999. For the ten years priors to that (i.e. between 1989 &
1999), Post Office cannot confirm the number of criminal prosecutions that took place.
This is because the age and manner in which information was recorded during this period,
before widespread use of computerised records, means it is not possible to verify the
accuracy of Post Office’s records. The surviving historical records for pre-1999 cases are
extremely limited and the information cannot be relied on as definitive.
A search of these records provides information about 57 prosecutions that Post Office
appears to have carried out that resulted in convictions. These were initiated after a
shortfall was identified in the relevant individual's branch which, for the purposes of this
data, usually relate to cases recorded as theft, fraud, cash loss, audit shortage or false
accounting and does not include convictions which appear not to have relied on Horizon
data in whole or in part (e.g. burglary or robberies)
I hope however that the information I have provided on this occasion is useful. For further
information about historical prosecutions you may be interested in information on our
corporate website which can be found here:
https://corporate.postoffice.co.uk/en/historical-matters/historical-matters-
proaress/historical-convictions-and-compensation-information-on-progress/
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