23 witness statements published following Phase 5 and 6 hearings

As Phase 5 and 6 of the Inquiry comes to a close, Counsel to the Inquiry, Jason Beer KC announced that an additional 23 witness statements from previous phases of the Inquiry have been made public on the Inquiry’s website. These statements are from Post Office executives, ICL and Fujitsu employees as well as Government officials.

In the hearing today, Mr Beer explained that due to the scale of Phases 5/6, the Inquiry team will continue to seek evidence and issue Rule 9 requests throughout August, and further evidence will be disclosed in due course.

Over 16 weeks, the Inquiry heard oral evidence from 66 witnesses including senior Post Office and Royal Mail officials, former and current government ministers, UK Government Investment officials/representatives, Fujitsu employees, legal and union representatives.

Addressing Inquiry Chair, Sir Wyn Williams, Jason Beer KC said: “The work of your Inquiry so far has covered a period of over 20 years. It has heard evidence through oral witnesses from 267 individuals.  We have published the written evidence from a further 229...;Your Inquiry has disclosed to participants almost 250,000 documents totalling 2 million pages of documents."

See here for an infographic with key numbers about Phases 5 and 6

Phase 7

As the Inquiry prepares to enter its seventh and final phase, it will be examining current Post Office and Government practice and the overall effectiveness of compensation schemes, building on Sir Wyn’s previous examination of compensation issues.

Sir Wyn confirmed today that Phase 7 is expected to start in the week commencing 23 September 2024 and continue into November. The Inquiry expects to hear evidence from a range of senior officials in the Post Office and Government. A witness timetable will be published in the coming weeks.

YouGov research

Phase 7 will also include evidence from research and data analytics firm, YouGov, who have been commissioned to survey all current UK sub-postmasters and Horizon Shortfall Scheme (HSS) applicants about their experiences

Answers will be treated as formal evidence to the Inquiry and will be analysed by YouGov in a report for Phase 7.

At the hearing today, Sir Wyn urged everyone who has been contacted to respond:

“It is crucial that I get as full a response as possible to these surveys, because we have looked long at the past, but now I'm coming up to date, so to speak, and I want to know about the present, both in terms of sub-postmasters' reactions to the present regime, survey number 1, and postmasters' reactions to the compensation scheme, HSS in particular.”

He also stressed that the surveys are independent of the Post Office and will inform his final report.

A full read-out of Sir Wyn's words is available in today's hearing transcript.

Ends.