Prime Minister Rishi Sunak on Wednesday announced the decision to pass legislation that would exempt and compensate postal workers.

– People who worked hard for their local communities had their lives and reputations destroyed through no fault of their own. Victims must get justice and compensation, Sunak said when questioned in the House on Wednesday.

This case became known as the Post Office scandal, and received much coverage in the British media.

Deficit

The Post Office scandal concerns several hundred self-employed people working on behalf of the state postal company. Between 1999 and 2015, they were charged or convicted of accounting errors, theft, and fraud. However, the loss of money in the system was not due to theft, but rather an error in the Horizon software used by the workers.

The Post Office claimed for years that data from the software, developed by Japan’s Fujitsu and used since 1999, was reliable, and accused its workers of theft.

Some were sent to prison while others suffered personal bankruptcy as a result of the prosecution.

– Desirable

The UK Supreme Court ruled in 2019 that it was software that caused the deficit, not theft. But a new TV series, telling the story of wrongfully convicted workers, has brought new attention to the case.

– This is what we are calling for, for the verdict to be annulled and recognition in the form of legislation from the government, said Tim Brentnall, one of the convicts, to the BBC.

He served 18 months of probation and 200 hours of community service before the sentence was revoked in 2021.

– It’s been two and a half years since my sentence was overturned, and nothing has happened since then, he said.