Sam Hancock
Reporting from the inquiry

Proceedings are about to get under way and there's been a bit of last-minute excitement here in the inquiry room.

Nick Read, the current chief executive of the Post Office, is here. He's sat on benches towards the front of the room, where lawyers who represent both the Post Office and sub-postmasters conduct their business from.

I've checked with a few other journalists and no one seemed to know he was coming. He's been to a few of these hearings in the past, but still - his presence shows the interest in today.

Just before Read took his seat, he approached a group of people who I'm guessing are former sub-postmasters - he shook some of their hands and had a short conversation then turned and found his place.

The Post Office inquiry is just about to get started.

We're expecting to hear first from former sub-postmaster and campaigner Alan Bates.

You can watch all the latest from Aldwych House by pressing Play at the top of the page.

Image source, ITV

• 1999: The Horizon accounting system is rolled out in Post Offices across the UK
• 2000: The first issue with the system is reported by Alan Bates, sub-postmaster of a branch in Wales
• 2003: Bates loses his job after refusing to accept responsibility for missing funds in the branch accounts
• 2004: More sub-postmasters find themselves being asked questions about missing funds - at times in the tens of thousands of pounds. Jobs are lost, some are declared bankrupt and some eventually sent to prison
• 2010: A high-profile case of wrongful conviction occurs - pregnant Surrey sub-postmaster Seema Misra is jailed after being accused of stealing £74,000
• 2012: Formal investigations into the Horizon software begin
• 2015: The Post Office halts private prosecutions of sub-postmasters
• 2017: Legal action is launched against the Post Office by a group of 555 sub-postmasters
• 2019: Post Office CEO Paula Vennells stands down, before the company agrees to pay £58m to the 555 sub-postmasters
• 2021: The public inquiry into the scandal begins
• 2023: The government announces that every wrongly convicted sub-postmaster will be offered £600,000 in compensation
• 2024: There's a resurgence of interest in the scandal after ITV releases a mini-series titled Mr Bates vs the Post Office. Vennells hands back her CBE
• 2024: The government introduces new legislation to speed up clearing victims' names and paying compensation

Image source, PA Media

Alan Bates, who inspired the ITV drama which sparked huge interest in the Post Office scandal, has arrived at Aldwych House.

He is a former sub-postmaster who led the campaign to expose the injustice. Bates founded the Justice For Subpostmasters Alliance (JFSA) and, alongside five others, took the Post Office to the High Court.

Bates will give evidence to Post Office Horizon IT inquiry as part of phases five and six of the probe, which will look at governance and how the Post Office responded to the scandal.

Sam Hancock
Reporting from the inquiry

There's always a bit of a buzz in the (very nice) waiting area outside the inquiry room, where I now am. But today there's a buzz word too - "Alan".

Some people are wondering if Bates has arrived yet, others what today might bring.

Meanwhile, journalists like me are getting set up and legal teams who represent - in some cases dozens and in others hundreds - former sub-postmasters and postmistresses have scurried off to special counsel rooms with some of their clients.

This is the first time Bates - who, remember, inspired ITV's series Mr Bates vs the Post Office - has given evidence at the inquiry, and the number of people here suggests the significance of that.

When Bates speaks publicly about the Post Office Horizon scandal, people listen.

Ahead of the resumption of the Post Office inquiry we're getting some more insight into the financial ramifications felt by those caught up in the Horizon scandal.

Penny Williams, who ran a post office in Cornwall, tells the BBC she was first made aware of a problem when she got a phone call from the Post Office saying they’d found a shortfall of £20,650.

Initially, she believed it was a computer error. There were small amounts of money shown missing even on the days her post office was closed, she says.

But those in charge didn't see it that way. Williams' post office was soon shut down, which forced her to also stop running her pub.

“We became persona non grata. A deck of cards collapsed completely. I was made bankrupt in March 2014. That left me with two small children, a mortgage and no business,” she tells BBC 5 Live Breakfast.

“The compensation is supposed to be us getting redress for financial loss, reputation loss for each individual person," she says, adding: "The Post Office is already guilty of what they did to us."

Inquiry enters significant phase as key players to deliver evidencepublished at 09:22 British Summer Time 9 April

09:22 BST 9 April

Theo Leggett
Business correspondent

This is a very significant phase of the inquiry. It's where we'll hear from some of the key players in the whole scandal.

Starting with Alan Bates, who has been a focal point for the sub-postmasters for many years now.

He spearheaded the legal campaign that in 2019 led to a High Court ruling, which said that Fujitsu’s Horizon accounting software - the IT system used by post offices - contained bugs, errors and defects.

The former sub-postmaster has been campaigning since then as well for those who have been wrongfully convicted to be exonerated - the legal processes for that are now happening - and for people to get compensation more quickly.

We'll also be hearing from a whole swathe of former Post Office executives. Starting this Friday with Adam Crozier, who led the Post Office from 2003 to 2010.

He hasn't really been seen as a public, central figure in all of this so far. But under questioning, that may change.

Later in the month, we'll be hearing from former Post Office boss Paula Vennells, who will be taking questions for three days.

She is a really controversial figure because of her role leading up to that court case in 2019, where there is mounting evidence that people in Fujitsu and the Post Office knew that the Horizon system was faulty, but were pushing ahead with legal action against sub-postmasters anyway.

Sam Hancock
Reporting from the inquiry

It's a wet morning here in London - nothing new there, though it does mean the camera crews outside have a slightly trickier job.

Some of their equipment is being sheltered by umbrellas and clear bags. Those operating the equipment have got their hoods up and look like they're wearing lots of layers.

I'm sheltering inside Aldwych House waiting to be allowed upstairs where the inquiry room is. The glamour of journalism.

Those crews outside are doing what you might expect - trying to capture the first image of Alan Bates arriving for today's hearing.

On previous days I've been here, the person giving evidence hasn't always entered or exited the building via this front entrance - what Bates will do remains to be seen.

Image source, .

According to the Department for Business and Trade there have been 983 UK-wide convictions, with 700 being Post Office prosecutions and 283 prosecutions brought by other groups, including the Crown Prosecution Service, since the Horizon System was installed in 1999.

So far just 95 have had their convictions overturned. A draft report uncovered by the BBC shows the Post Office spent £100m fighting the group in court despite knowing its defence was untrue. The Post Office said it would be "inappropriate" to comment.

The Criminal Cases Review Commission said the scandal was "the most widespread miscarriage of justice" it had seen.

The Post Office prosecutions include some in Scotland and Northern Ireland, where separate action will have to be taken to clear those affected.

Scotland’s First Minister Humza Yousaf said he was also keen to work with UK ministers on the issue.

Terry Wilcox, a solicitor representing several sub-postmasters, says that today marks the "start of an exciting phase" of the Post Office inquiry.

“We have got senior executives, people who are at the heart of this story are coming to give evidence for the first time,” he says.

Wilcox tells the BBC he hopes the inquiry will find answers to the questions that sub-postmasters have had "for decades".

"The wait has been forever,” he says.

We've been hearing about the unexplained shortfalls sub-postmasters and mistresses were experiencing - but what actually went wrong with the Horizon IT system?

It's the responsibility of those running Post Office branches to balance their accounts, which had previously been done on paper, but in 1999, Fujitsu's Horizon was introduced.

Almost immediately there was an increase in the number of staff experiencing accounting shortfalls which they could not explain.

Josephine Hamilton, a former sub-postmistress from South Warnborough, who was convicted of fraud, says she saw the amount "double before her eyes" while using the software.

Josephine said at first the Horizon system showed there was £2,000 missing. She then contacted the Post Office support, who advised her, but after following their instructions, the amount doubled to £4,000.

Many reported that the Horizon system made it look like money was missing when it wasn't.

Jason Coyne, an IT expert, was instructed to examine the computer system in 2003 and reported "concerning discrepancies".

Coyne said there "was clearly defective elements of its hardware, software and interfaces, and the majority of errors noticed in the fault logs could not be attributed to the sub-postmaster".

Coyne said the Post Office data was "unreliable" but he was ignored, sacked, and then discredited.

We’ve been hearing this morning from Jacqui Franklin, a sub-postmistress from Warwickshire, who says she started using the Horizon system back in 2000, adding that it was “flawed with problems”.

“We spent evenings looking for money which had gone missing. We were always told that we had to make good the cash,” Franklin tells BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.

“We just could not account for the losses. We were told it was down to human error, it was some mistake we had made, so we were taking out transaction logs, going through every receipt we possibly could think of, checking our cash, rechecking our stamps," she says.

"Everything we possibly could do, we were trying to do to try find the money.”

Last month, the BBC uncovered a draft report showing the Post Office spent £100m fighting sub-postmasters in court despite knowing its defence was untrue.

The document revealed the Post Office was shown evidence in 2017 that losses could be due to errors in the Horizon IT system or remote tampering. But it kept arguing in the Bates v Post Office Ltd case that theft or mistakes by sub-postmasters must be to blame.

At the time, the Post Office said it would be "inappropriate" to comment.

Patrick Green KC, the lead barrister for the sub-postmasters in the Bates case, has said the BBC's findings were "absolutely shocking". After reading the report, he added: "I don't think the case should have happened."

• You can read more on this story here

Image source, PA Media

Earlier this week, the current Post Office minister sat down with the BBC and expressed his support for jailing those responsible in the Horizon scandal.

Kevin Hollinrake told a BBC Breakfast audience of sub-postmasters that "people should be prosecuted" when evidence is "established", and "people within the Post Office, possibly further afield, should go to jail".

More than 700 people were prosecuted by the Post Office between 1999 and 2015. To date, just 37 have received full and final compensation settlements.

Hollinrake's comments follow those of Alan Bates, who will be appearing at the inquiry today.

"People have got to be held accountable," Bates, a former sub-postmaster, previously told the BBC.

"That's got to happen. And we're going to have to carry on campaigning for that to occur."

Alan Bates is a former sub-postmaster who led the campaign to expose the Post Office Horizon IT scandal.

He ran the Post Office at Craig-y-Don, Llandudno from March 1998 until November 2003. The Horizon IT system was installed at his branch shortly after he took charge. As with other sub-postmasters, he noticed money - thousands of pounds at a time - going missing from his books.

He refused to make up the shortfall, despite the Post Office’s demands, convinced the Fujitsu computing system was to blame.

Bates later founded the Justice For Subpostmasters Alliance (JFSA) and he and five others took the Post Office to the High Court.

Image source, ITV

The former sub-postmaster continues to campaign for all those affected in the Horizon scandal and for a government compensation scheme. His story and the scandal was the subject of ITV drama Mr Bates vs the Post Office.

Toby Jones, who played Bates, has said it was one of the most difficult roles of his career.

“He was constantly denying the fact that he was worthy of being the subject of the drama, because his life is totally preoccupied with achieving justice for sub-postmasters,” Jones said of Bates.

More than 900 sub-postmasters were prosecuted for stealing because of incorrect information from a computer system called Horizon, in what has been called the UK's most widespread miscarriage of justice.

The Post Office itself took many cases to court, prosecuting 700 people between 1999 and 2015.

Another 283 cases were brought by other bodies, including the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS).

Many went to prison for false accounting and theft. Many were financially ruined.

In 2017, a group of 555 sub-postmasters took legal action against the Post Office. In 2019, it agreed to pay them £58m in compensation, but much of the money went on legal fees.

A draft report uncovered by the BBC shows the Post Office spent £100m fighting the group in court despite knowing its defence was untrue. The Post Office said it would be "inappropriate" to comment.

And although campaigners won the right for cases to be reconsidered, only 95 convictions had been overturned by mid-January 2024.

Sam Hancock
Reporting from the inquiry

Image source, EPA

Hello again from Aldwych House in central London, where we’re back for the beginning of the next phase of the Post Office Horizon IT inquiry.

It'll focus on various aspects of the scandal, including redress, access to justice and whistleblowing, and is due to last until July.

A lot has happened since phase four ended, including several major media investigations - all of which have revealed damning evidence over who knew what and when as the Post Office prosecuted hundreds of sub-postmasters and postmistresses between 1999 and 2015.

Giving evidence today is Alan Bates, a former sub-postmaster, founder of the Justice For Subpostmasters Alliance, and the campaigner who inspired ITV's Mr Bates vs the Post Office - the hit drama series that re-shone a light on the scandal earlier this year.

I’ll be inside the room, letting you know what’s happening there, while my colleagues provide live text updates from our newsroom in London.

You'll also be able to watch the hearing live by tapping the Play button at the top of this page.