The Post Office has issued another apology to subpostmasters after it was discovered that a text message meant to alert branch managers of an issue with the Horizon IT system was never sent. On 20 August, about 3,000 Post Office branch counters were unable to do business due to a disconnect between branch systems and a Fujitsu datacentre. Although the Post Office claimed to have sent a text blast to inform branches of the issue, affected subpostmasters did not receive anything. It has been confirmed that the text alert was not actually sent due to human error.
The Post Office’s IT systems have already faced scrutiny following the Horizon scandal, where many subpostmasters lost their livelihoods and were wrongly convicted of financial crimes. A replacement system called New Branch IT (NBIT) was supposed to be completed by 2025 but will not be fully in place until 2030. The Post Office has asked for nearly £1bn in additional taxpayer cash for the project, originally budgeted at £180m. In the midst of this, the Post Office is bringing in a new technology leader as it awaits funding for the troubled project. Chris Brocklesby, the current chief transformation officer, will be succeeded on an interim basis by Andy Nice.
The Post Office scandal was first exposed by Computer Weekly in 2009, highlighting the injustices faced by subpostmasters. It remains one of the biggest miscarriages of justice in British history.
