The UK Post Office Horizon Public Inquiry resumes today almost four years after it began, with public interest in the scandal having skyrocketed thanks to a TV drama. Giving evidence today is the hero of that series, Alan Bates, who led a group litigation against the Post Office in 2017.
The inquiry is now taking its lunch break and is expected to resume at around 2pm. We now turn to a letter sent by Alan Bates to Ed Davey, who was postal minister when the correspondence took place in 2010. In the letter, Mr Bates asked for a meeting to show Mr Davey the vast amount of evidence his organisation the Justice for Sub-postmasters Alliance.
Mr Bates says he cannot recall details of the meeting, but says it is"quite certain" that if anything positive came of it he would remember it. When shortfalls on his account were first identified he pointed out that they had to be the result of the faulty Horizon system and could not be his responsibility.
And at almost every turn, from what we have heard so far, the response from officials, be they within the Post Office or in Whitehall, could scarcely have been more dismissive and complacent.Since leaving the Post Office in November 2003, Alan Bates has campaigned for accountability, justice, and redress over the Horizon scandal. "I didn't set out to spend 20 years doing this," he adds, saying he didn't expect to be doing so much work by himself.
"To your knowledge, has the NFSB ever once helped a sub-postmaster in any court case in which the operation of the Horizon system or the integrity of the data which it produces has been questioned?" Jason Beer QC asks Mr Bates. "None at all," Mr Bates says. "I don't know," Mr Bates concludes.
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