The police criminal inquiry into the Post Office Horizon IT scandal faces a five-year delay unless it receives millions in extra funding and nearly 100 additional staff, according to the chief officer in charge. Metropolitan Police Commander Stephen Clayman said he needs to nearly double the number of investigators to 210 to meet a deadline of late 2027 or early 2028 for submitting files to prosecutors.
The Home Office recently granted £2.8 million to the investigation, but Clayman said the projected budget is up to £19.3 million, leaving a £16.5 million shortfall. More than 900 post office operators were prosecuted between 1999 and 2015 due to faulty Horizon accounting software from Fujitsu, which made it appear they had committed fraud. The scandal has been described as the worst miscarriage of justice in British history.
The investigation, codenamed Operation Olympos, is “hugely complex” and detectives already hold 8 million documents, a number set to grow. Clayman said: “Only by doing this can we piece together exactly what happened, establish who knew what and understand the role suspects may have played.” Police have interviewed seven more suspects under caution this year, bringing the total questioned to 13 out of 53 under investigation.
Clayman warned: “To meet our proposed timeline of submitting files for charging decisions in late 2027/early 2028, we need to double the size of the investigation team from 111 to 210. Without this, we risk our timelines being pushed back by as much as five years, which we know is unacceptable for those who have already been living with this for decades.”
Police will await the full publication of Sir Wyn Williams’s public inquiry findings before moving to charging. Part one focused on human impact and financial redress; part two, expected to examine Horizon system flaws and Post Office culture, has no release date yet. Across all redress schemes, more than 11,500 claimants have received a total of £1.48 billion so far.
