Faults in Post Office accounting system led to workers being convicted of theft
A few additional details on the system in question in this 2017 Financial Times piece (archive.is copy):  <a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;archive.is&#x2F;8RzKm" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;archive.is&#x2F;8RzKm</a><p>The system was &quot;Horizon&quot;.<p>The vendor, Fujitsu.<p>Horizon warrants its own Wikipedia article:  <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Horizon_(IT_system)" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Horizon_(IT_system)</a><p>Fujitsu have their own set of propaganda^Wwhite papers on the system:<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.fujitsu.com&#x2F;uk&#x2F;Images&#x2F;postoffice-customer-experience.pdf" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.fujitsu.com&#x2F;uk&#x2F;Images&#x2F;postoffice-customer-experi...</a><p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.fujitsu.com&#x2F;downloads&#x2F;WWW2&#x2F;UKpostoffice2.pdf" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.fujitsu.com&#x2F;downloads&#x2F;WWW2&#x2F;UKpostoffice2.pdf</a><p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.fujitsu.com&#x2F;downloads&#x2F;WWW2&#x2F;UKPostOffice.pdf" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.fujitsu.com&#x2F;downloads&#x2F;WWW2&#x2F;UKPostOffice.pdf</a><p>An excellent and detailed bit of coverage in this blog (see meta&#x2F;soapbox below):<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;becarefulwhatyouwishfornickwallis.blogspot.com&#x2F;2013&#x2F;08&#x2F;post-office-2nd-sight-report-into.html" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;becarefulwhatyouwishfornickwallis.blogspot.com&#x2F;2013&#x2F;...</a><p>Nick Wallis (himself a BBC presenter and journalist) spins out the Post Office &#x2F; Horizon story into its own site:  <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.postofficetrial.com" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.postofficetrial.com</a>
There are several posts on the settlement, one of which looks at just what the claimants are receiving for decades of injustice -- it works out to an average of £47,101 each.<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.postofficetrial.com&#x2F;2019&#x2F;12&#x2F;further-questions.html" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.postofficetrial.com&#x2F;2019&#x2F;12&#x2F;further-questions.ht...</a><p>Details on the trial:<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.postofficetrial.com&#x2F;2019&#x2F;03&#x2F;horizon-trial-day-8-going-postal.html" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.postofficetrial.com&#x2F;2019&#x2F;03&#x2F;horizon-trial-day-8-...</a><p>The Register, biting the hand...<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.theregister.co.uk&#x2F;2017&#x2F;04&#x2F;10&#x2F;subpostmasters_prepare_to_fight_post_office_over_wrongful_theft_and_false_accounting_accusations&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.theregister.co.uk&#x2F;2017&#x2F;04&#x2F;10&#x2F;subpostmasters_prep...</a><p>The Horizon system was audited in 2013, by Second Sight, though the UKPO denied the report&#x27;s findings:<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.theregister.co.uk&#x2F;2015&#x2F;04&#x2F;20&#x2F;post_office_deny_premature_litigation_horizon_it&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.theregister.co.uk&#x2F;2015&#x2F;04&#x2F;20&#x2F;post_office_deny_pr...</a><p>Note that the BBC itself covered the interim Second Sight report, a fact it entirely neglected to mention in TFA for this post.  See:<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.bbc.com&#x2F;news&#x2F;uk-23233573" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.bbc.com&#x2F;news&#x2F;uk-23233573</a><p>Computer Weekly, from 2013:<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.computerweekly.com&#x2F;news&#x2F;2240175402&#x2F;Post-Office-admits-that-Horizon-system-needs-more-investigation" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.computerweekly.com&#x2F;news&#x2F;2240175402&#x2F;Post-Office-a...</a><p>(Also a timeline of reporting <i>dating to 2009</i>: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.computerweekly.com&#x2F;news&#x2F;252475310&#x2F;Post-Office-settles-legal-dispute-with-subpostmasters-ending-20-year-battle-for-lead-claimant#Timeline" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.computerweekly.com&#x2F;news&#x2F;252475310&#x2F;Post-Office-se...</a> ... more below.)<p>The Horizon system may be replaced, possibly by an IBM project:<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.computerweekly.com&#x2F;news&#x2F;4500249009&#x2F;Post-Office-looking-to-replace-controversial-Horizon-system-says-MP" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.computerweekly.com&#x2F;news&#x2F;4500249009&#x2F;Post-Office-l...</a><p>________________________________<p>Meta:<p>There are several schools of thought regarding reportage and how to report a story.  The BBC&#x27;s piece here is heavy on the human impact &#x2F; human interest elements of the story, which are a relevant <i>element</i>.  However it covers this aspect virtually exclusively, neglecting to identify the timeframe or previous history of the case, <i>including its own reporting</i>, but also of the relevant system and company names involved.  This strikes me as shoddy practice.<p>Listening to a recent podcast (which doesn&#x27;t much matter), a guest quipped regarding the decline of newspapers that they would often hear from people who would complain about the poor quality of newspaper coverage, but who didn&#x27;t subscribe to their own paper.  This strikes me as an extraordinarily shallow dismissal.<p>If you go through historical newspaper coverage, at least some of it (usually national coverage, though also many major city papers) was, at least at times, exceedingly good.  I do a significant amount of historical research and can attest to this.  I also live in a household which, not on the basis of my own support, <i>does</i> subscribe to a major city daily paper.  Whose quality is absolutely abysmal.  (The publishers themselves are something of an international joke.)<p>It&#x27;s almost certainly a self-reinforcing situation, but when front-page coverage is a mix of human-interest and international newswire coverage, when what little actual news that <i>does</i> exist is also largely hidden on inside pages and <i>also</i> almost exclusively news wires, when entire sections consist of graphic-illustration front pages and syndicated-content filler (Business, Homes, Living, Arts &amp; Entertainment, Autos, etc., with Sport being a possible exception), the value proposition becomes exceedingly questionable.  The exclusive realm of semi-original coverage is opinion and column pieces, though those too are lagely void of any material significance.<p>And when the writing style itself becomes so larded with stylebook syntactic candy that the reader must wade through hip-deep lakes of the stuff to find a single salient factual or contextual element ... what&#x27;s the use?  That&#x27;s above and beyond the near-total human-interest (or in politics, horse-race) elements of the reporting, rather than providing <i>any</i> level of background or context, let alone focusing on it.<p>All of which is well-illustrated in this BBC piece, nominally among the better journalistic sources remaining.<p>It&#x27;s sources available online -- blogs, interest sites, occasionally relic holdouts of higher-quality journalism (FT is ... pretty good, though even it was light on details in the item cited here), or often-mocked (with some justification) sites such as The Register, which actually deliver meat.  As well as the odd industry-specific outlet as with Computer Weekly.<p>One of the simplest, easiest, and most effective practices is simply to <i>list previous coverage on a topic.</i>  This is something <i>some</i> news sites do, but many do not. The BBC should absolutely adopt this practice.<p>Computer Weekly <i>does</i>, as noted in another comment on this thread.  See:<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.computerweekly.com&#x2F;news&#x2F;252475310&#x2F;Post-Office-settles-legal-dispute-with-subpostmasters-ending-20-year-battle-for-lead-claimant#Timeline" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.computerweekly.com&#x2F;news&#x2F;252475310&#x2F;Post-Office-se...</a><p>(I&#x27;ll note that HN&#x27;s own moderators often step in to add not only previous coverage of perennial topics and posts, but previous mentions of larger &#x2F; developing stories, something I appreciate about the site.)<p>That rot in jouralism and the news sector is to a huge extent self-inflicted injury.  And could be addressed, if there was awareness and will.<p>&lt;&#x2F;soapbox&gt;