Post Office considering making branch operators fund ‘losses pool’, inquiry told

The Post Office is exploring options including a return to the courts for the civil recovery of losses, which it stopped in 2018. Photograph: Andy Rain/EPA

The Post Office is looking into the possibility of creating a “losses pool”, funded by branch owner-operators, as it seeks to address the mounting financial issue of shortfalls in its network of 11,500 outlets.

Following damning high court judgments in 2019, which ultimately resulted in hundreds of postmasters being exonerated over wrongful prosecutions for shortfalls linked to faulty Horizon software, the Post Office pursues losses only if there is an agreement with the branch owner-operator.