The first hearings of the Post Office Horizon IT Inquiry commenced yesterday. Previously a non-statutory inquiry, the Inquiry was put on a statutory footing under the Inquiries Act 2005 on 1st June 2021, following the judgment of the Court of Appeal quashing the convictions of 39 men and women for offences of dishonesty that were reliant on the assertion by the Post Office that all the evidence obtained from the Horizon IT system was accurate and reliable (find out more here).
The first phase of the Inquiry will involve hearing from subpostmasters about the human impact on them of the operation of the Horizon system and the conduct of the Post Office.
There has been significant coverage of the Inquiry, including by the Times, the BBC and in the Daily Mail.
Julian Blake and Ruth Kennedy act as junior counsel to the Inquiry (led by leading counsel Jason Beer KC and alongside Catriona Hodge of 5 Essex Court).
