Post Office apologizes for data breach amid Horizon scandal inquiry

The UK’s state-owned Post Office, responsible for providing postal services, has issued an apology following the inadvertent publication of personal details of 555 former postmasters who were prosecuted during the Horizon scandal.

The breach, which involved the names and addresses of the affected individuals, was reported by the Daily Mail and has led to significant distress among the victims. The Post Office has confirmed that the data was shared in a document on its website and has reported the incident to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO).

The Horizon scandal, which dates back to prosecutions between 1999 and 2015, involved sub-postmasters being wrongfully accused of theft due to erroneous data from the Horizon accounting software. An ongoing inquiry continues to hear testimonies from those affected.

Former sub-postmaster Christopher Head expressed his dismay on social media, stating that the breach had caused “a great amount of upset, distress and anger” among his peers. He emphasized that many impacted people had not disclosed these details to their families and remained deeply traumatized by the scandal.

In response, Post Office Chief Executive Nick Read acknowledged the severity of the error, describing it as “a truly terrible error” and offering an apology. He assured that the Post Office is urgently reviewing the situation to determine appropriate follow-up actions for those affected and to improve organizational processes.

The leaked document, which included the names of those who sued the Post Office in 2017 and subsequently received a £58 million compensation settlement (most of which was absorbed by legal fees), has since been removed from the website. The ICO is assessing the situation, as organizations are required to report data breaches that pose a risk to people’s rights and freedoms within 72 hours.

The Horizon scandal is regarded as one of the UK’s most extensive miscarriages of justice, with over 900 sub-postmasters wrongfully prosecuted, many of whom faced imprisonment and financial devastation.