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UK Post Office: 700 Horizon software scandal victims to receive £600k each

theguardian.com

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Re: UK Post Office: 700 Horizon software scandal victims to receive £600k each

#11

Post by pipes »

rajandatta wrote: post #9

I've followed this matter a little bit as I work in the I.T. industry. I don't live in the UK and have no knowledge of the actors. The government response, including this announcement is shockingly deficient and on the low side of the impact. For a start - it only targets those who were convicted. It does not take into account all actors adversely impacted including falsely accused but not convicted. It doesn't take…

I live in the UK. It's bizarrely barely news. The scale of it is staggering yet the media coverage is small. Well it feels small to me. I don't see any public outrage about this. Part of me thinks it's because it's sort of an institution like the NHS and critisizing it is a no no (though it has been privitized).

I want to see heads roll at the post office. As far as I can remember staff knew about the software issues but covered them up. Also why wasn't the burden of proof on the software developers to prove to the court it was correct? Can the vendor be held accountable?

And lastly, the bonuses the board have paid themselves for cooperating with the enquirey, that's truly sickening. It's rotten on so many levels. It's money for sending innocent people to prison.

Re: UK Post Office: 700 Horizon software scandal victims to receive £600k each

#12

Post by pipes »

gumballindie wrote: post #4
tyingq wrote: post #2

They did answer my first question after reading the headline... "The government said the new compensation offer was in addition to paying for all reasonable legal fees, and any post office operator who does not want to accept it can continue with the existing legal process."

What i am curious though is if they’ll be taxed on the money. Of so that means the compensation is far lower.

They may have already had to pay for bed and board for free accomodation they got while in prison: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/08/06/wrongly-convicte...

I remember David blunket introducing this ghastly mechanism and being shocked that no one cared. He was an awful home secretary.

Re: UK Post Office: 700 Horizon software scandal victims to receive £600k each

#13

Post by toyg »

pipes wrote: post #11
rajandatta wrote: post #9

I've followed this matter a little bit as I work in the I.T. industry. I don't live in the UK and have no knowledge of the actors. The government response, including this announcement is shockingly deficient and on the low side of the impact. For a start - it only targets those who were convicted. It does not take into account all actors adversely impacted including falsely accused but not convicted. It doesn't take…

I live in the UK. It's bizarrely barely news. The scale of it is staggering yet the media coverage is small. Well it feels small to me. I don't see any public outrage about this. Part of me thinks it's because it's sort of an institution like the NHS and critisizing it is a no no (though it has been privitized). I want to see heads roll at the post office. As far as I can remember staff knew about the software issues…

I think part of the reason for relative quietness is: after 30 years of privatisation drives, what is left of the Post Office is just another business with some extra regulatory burden. "Business Screwing Up" happens every day and is hardly news.

This said, thank goodness some free press still exists in the UK. Without Private Eye, these folks would never have seen even the little justice they received.

Re: UK Post Office: 700 Horizon software scandal victims to receive £600k each

#14

Post by PaulKeeble »

rajandatta wrote: post #9

I've followed this matter a little bit as I work in the I.T. industry. I don't live in the UK and have no knowledge of the actors. The government response, including this announcement is shockingly deficient and on the low side of the impact. For a start - it only targets those who were convicted. It does not take into account all actors adversely impacted including falsely accused but not convicted. It doesn't take…

I agree. There are a lot more victims of the Post offices crimes who paid the difference or were fired from their jobs that are not being compensated, the true scale of the problem is much larger than just those convicted.

What astonishes me about this response is that we have clear criminal action by executives in the Post Office, they knew the system was faulty and they still went ahead with the legal cases. These executives have crimes they need to be tried for in court. This is a criminal matter against the staff of the Post office and its just not being dealt with correctly at all. The Post Office should be paying a lot of people accused compensation.

Re: UK Post Office: 700 Horizon software scandal victims to receive £600k each

#15

Post by jayelbe »

pipes wrote: post #11
rajandatta wrote: post #9

I've followed this matter a little bit as I work in the I.T. industry. I don't live in the UK and have no knowledge of the actors. The government response, including this announcement is shockingly deficient and on the low side of the impact. For a start - it only targets those who were convicted. It does not take into account all actors adversely impacted including falsely accused but not convicted. It doesn't take…

I live in the UK. It's bizarrely barely news. The scale of it is staggering yet the media coverage is small. Well it feels small to me. I don't see any public outrage about this. Part of me thinks it's because it's sort of an institution like the NHS and critisizing it is a no no (though it has been privitized). I want to see heads roll at the post office. As far as I can remember staff knew about the software issues…

The Post Office hasn't been privatised. The company is still owned by the state. Individual subpostmasters run their branches as their own semi-independent businesses using the Post Office brand - but it has always been this way in most of the country.

It's Royal Mail (the letters and parcel delivery side of things) that was privatised.

Re: UK Post Office: 700 Horizon software scandal victims to receive £600k each

#17

Post by 15457345234 »

walthamstow wrote: post #16

You can subscribe to Private Eye here for £38 a year with an issue through your letterbox every fortnight https://checkout.private-eye.co.uk/singleitem?item=PEY&prom=...

Oh they have a podcast, how intriguing

Re: UK Post Office: 700 Horizon software scandal victims to receive £600k each

#18

Post by valdiorn »

darkclouds wrote: post #8
edandersen wrote: post #6

Any prosecutions yet for the people behind the scandal?

Get real, this is the UK, in fact if you follow the progression of some of the key players, they are now manipulating politicians. So once politicians learn to give the bird to the media headlights, you might start to see this country cleaned up, ironically I think Russell Brand can probably do more to clean up the media and their witch hunts than any member of the Royal Family or Govt. Personally I think £600k is an…

Wait until you read about this guy

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/07/27/innocent-andrew-...

The maximum compensation you can get in the UK is around 1.1 million IIRC. They were going to deduct several hundred thousand pounds from that for "room and board" while he was in jail, leaving him with just over 700k

Re: UK Post Office: 700 Horizon software scandal victims to receive £600k each

#19

Post by fauigerzigerk »

thmsths wrote: post #10

What I can't comprehend is the scale of the failure of the justice system here. Unless I am mistaken there were hundreds of victims over more than a decade. So 700 trials, in which the judges and the juries failed these people. How can such a systemic failure happen? It paints a very poor picture of the justice system in the UK ...

It's because Post Office bosses failed to disclose the facts. This was/is a systematic cover-up. What I don't understand is why the people responsible for this, such as then CEO Paula Vennells, do not face criminal charges.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/jul/18/post-o...

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2021/apr/23/post-office...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paula_Vennells

Re: UK Post Office: 700 Horizon software scandal victims to receive £600k each

#20

Post by zimpenfish »

15457345234 wrote: post #17
walthamstow wrote: post #16

You can subscribe to Private Eye here for £38 a year with an issue through your letterbox every fortnight https://checkout.private-eye.co.uk/singleitem?item=PEY&prom=...

Oh they have a podcast, how intriguing

Infuriatingly irregular though (I will concede the last couple of months haven't been too bad.) Also a bit short but I suppose it's essentially a trailer for the magazine and going longer may cannibalise those sales.
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