The DWP said in August that it would carry out an independent review of prosecutions of subpostmasters, but it has yet to appoint a reviewer
The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) has yet to formally launch its review of prosecutions of subpostmasters, despite it being announced in August 2025, and has yet to appoint a reviewer.
Lawyers representing former subpostmasters are not waiting around, as the DWP “drags its feet” and have cases “lined up” for the Criminal Cases Review Commission to review.
In the aftermath of the Post Office Horizon scandal hitting the headlines and the overturning of subpostmaster convictions based on data from the Post Office’s Horizon system, the government department announced a review of its own prosecutions of subpostmasters.
The “independent assurance review”, as it was described by the DWP, will look at prosecutions between 1996 and 2018. But Neil Hudgell, lawyer at Hudgell Solicitors, which represents hundreds of Post Office scandal victims, said the DWP is “dragging its feet” and his law firm is pursuing its own investigations on behalf of clients, already having “a couple of cases lined up” to send to the CCRC.
“We’ve unearthed some interesting things that we think impact the safety of convictions, so we’re not waiting around on DWP themselves,” said Hudgell. “Someone needs to lean on the DWP, because it’s not good enough. [The longer it takes] the more suspicion subpostmasters have that there’s something to hide.”
Around 100 subpostmasters and staff were prosecuted by the DWP with support from the Post Office. The DWP said it has recovered material and reviewed cases, but has so far has not found evidence that Horizon data was used by it to prosecute subpostmasters or branch staff.
Polluted prosecutions
Focus turned on the DWP after the Post Office Horizon controversy hit the mainstream following the ITV drama about the scandal, which saw hundreds of subpostmasters wrongly prosecuted following account shortfalls. These discrepancies were caused by errors in the Post Office’s Horizon system used in branches and effected thousands of subpostmasters. More than 700 subpostmaster convictions, which were based on data from Horizon, were overturned en masse through an act of Parliament in May 2024.
The DWP worked with the Post Office on its subpostmaster prosecutions, and it has emerged that prosecutions of people using various systems at Post Office branches could also be flawed. The CCRC now refers to cases based on multiple technologies as “pre-Horizon appeals”, such is the variety of systems involved.
The DWP said prosecutions were related to fraudulent activity on the DWP payment mechanisms such as order book fraud, but Hudgell has stated that “all prosecutions involving the Post Office are polluted and need to be looked at”.
In an update, a DWP spokesperson told Computer Weekly: “We announced an independent assurance review where Post Office members of staff were prosecuted by the Department for welfare-related fraud. Over the past few years, we have taken comprehensive steps to recover material and review all relevant cases. To date, no documentation has been identified to show that Horizon data was essential to any DWP prosecutions.”
The DWP said it will not review criminal convictions.
James Arbuthnot, who campaigned for justice for subpostmasters for nearly two decades, said the Horizon Advisory Board, of which he is a member, has met the DWP regarding its review: “We strongly believe they ought to look at individual cases and, at the moment, they are saying they are not going to do that. Unless they do, we think the review will be pointless and they might as well not do it.”
Since the announcement in August last year, the DWP expanded scope to give the individuals or organisations the opportunity to provide information to the independent reviewer. The government department said the review will take six months once it starts and it is currently in the process of appointing a reviewer.
The Post Office Horizon scandal was first exposed by Computer Weekly in 2009, revealing the stories of seven subpostmasters and the problems they suffered due to accounting software (see below timeline of all Computer Weekly articles about the Horizon scandal, since 2009).
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