Post Office almost halves amount set aside for Horizon IT scandal compensation

The Post Office said the inquiry had cost it £38m in legal and running costs this year, up from £12m in 2022. Photograph: Andy Rain/EPA

The Post Office has almost halved the amount set aside for payments to branch managers wrongly convicted in the Horizon IT scandal as fewer than expected have won or brought appeals.

The scandal, frequently described as “the most widespread miscarriage of justice in UK history”, resulted in more than 700 post office operators being prosecuted between 1999 and 2015 for theft, fraud and false accounting because of faulty accounting software installed in the late 1990s.