The Times view on issues raised at the Post Office inquiry: Postal Shame

After more than two and a half years of testimony by almost 300 witnesses and around two million pages of evidence, the final day of hearings came on Wednesday in the Post Office inquiry into the biggest miscarriage of justice in British legal history. Sir Wyn Williams, the chairman, will deliver his report next summer.

Already, however, it is clear that this will be a damning indictment of official deception, government cover-ups and the culpable refusal of Fujitsu, the Japanese computer giant, to acknowledge that its Horizon programme used by sub-postmasters was riddled with faults. These led to the false conviction of close to 1,000 postmasters, the imprisonment of some, the bankruptcy and suicide of others and the shame and agony of all those wrongly accused of theft.

Governments, both Conservative and Labour, have acknowledged the injustice, apologised to the many victims and promised compensation. But the money will do little to erase the shame of a scandal that began in 2003 when faults were first suspected in the Horizon programme. It will not bring relief to sub-postmasters ostracised by their communities. It will not hold to account the senior officials within the Post Office and Fujitsu who withheld damning evidence of Horizon’s malfunctions from initial investigations. And although a vast sum has been set aside in the budget to remedy the injustice, most of the worst-affected victims are still awaiting payment. Only 2,583 of the 5,678 possible victims have received full compensation. Bureaucracy and legal quibbling are prolonging a 20-year-old injustice. Pay the money now.

The reputation of the Post Office has been shredded. Dating back some 360 years, it was for decades revered, in peacetime and in war, as a ­noble institution binding the nation together in essential communications, serving as community hubs in towns and villages and delivering ­pensions, licences and government services.

Times and morals have changed. The inquiry has uncovered evidence of collusion, conspiracy and cheating at the highest levels. It has found the Post Office guilty of crude racism in classifying its employees. It has exposed squalid incentives to ­investigators to claw back money from the ­victims, by bullying tactics if necessary. The Post Office was relentless in its quest for convictions.

The economic basis for the Post Office has also been shaken by changing technology. Fewer people send letters. Telegrams long ceased to be a business. Parcel delivery is growing rapidly, but so too is the competition to what was once a Post Office monopoly. Desperate to remain viable, the Post Office has closed full-service branches and drawn up plans to cut head office staff, while Royal Mail has raised postal charges and brought in ­limits to the range and times of deliveries.

On Wednesday, in a clear attempt to assuage anger and regain public confidence, it announced a “new deal” for postmasters, promising a sharp rise in the fees paid to them, offering more consultations and a share in running the business and promising greater investment in the automation of cash and mail services to allow them time to serve customers. Yet at the same time it decided to shed more than 100 directly-owned branches, axe hundreds of jobs and offer the franchises to commercial partners. The predictable uproar from the unions has eclipsed the new deal. The Post Office faces a tough period in the run-up to the searing report on its unconscionable earlier behaviour.