Post Office appoints Burges Salmon to advise on Horizon IT Inquiry

Post Office has announced the appointment of law firm Burges Salmon to advise it in relation to the ongoing Horizon IT Inquiry.

The appointment follows a decision by the Post Office board in January this year to appoint a new law firm.

Burges Salmon, working in an integrated team with Fieldfisher have significant expertise, having between them worked on most major public inquiries over the past 20 years.

Post Office said its current legal representatives for the Inquiry, Herbert Smith Freehills, are working to ensure a smooth transition, with Burges Salmon/Fieldfisher beginning preparatory work for later phases of the Inquiry.

“The Post Office is committed to providing full assistance to the Inquiry and the Post Office board decision was taken in consideration of costs, given the Inquiry is now due to run significantly longer than anticipated,” the company said in a statement.

“It also addresses any future potential risk of Herbert Smith Freehills being unable to assist on aspects of Phase 5 relating to matters in which it has been involved.”

Herbert Smith Freehills will continue to assist on other matters including the administration of the Historical Shortfall Scheme,” Post Office added.

Post Office Horizon IT Inquiry, which is being chaired by Welsh judge Wyn Williams, is an independent public statutory Inquiry established to gather a clear account of the implementation and failings of the Horizon IT system at the Post Office over its lifetime.

They include when the Post Office knew about the IT flaws, how staff were made to take the blame and whether its governance and whistleblowing structures need reform.

The Inquiry has concluded the Phase 3 of its public hearings last month, and set to conduct the next phase in July.

The scandal saw the Post Office prosecute hundreds of people running small local branches for alleged false accounting and theft, after its IT system called Horizon reported shortfalls between 2000 and 2014.

Some of the subpostmasters were imprisoned or left out of pocket after being asked to make up the shortfalls, while others failed to find other jobs and lost their homes.

In 2019, the High Court ruled that Horizon was affected by bugs and defects, and courts have gone on to quash 86 convictions as of late April.