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Peer demands independent investigation into DWP’s prosecution of subpostmasters

The DWP’s promised review of subpostmaster prosecutions doesn’t satisfy the demands of politicians and campaigners

Karl Flinders
By
Published: 27 Jan 2026 14:30

The government should commit to a thorough independent investigation of the prosecutions of subpostmasters by the Department of Work and Pensions (DWP), a campaigning peer has demanded.

Last August, in light of the Post Office scandal and the overturning of hundreds of wrongful convictions, the DWP said it would review its prosecutions of subpostmasters.

But peer Prem Sikka, who is due to meet DWP minister Andrew Western today (27 January), said he will demand more than what is currently described by the DWP as an “independent assurance review” of the prosecutions.

“I want to see an independent investigation, and I want the survivors and the families of those who have passed away to be invited to give evidence,” added Sikka.

The DWP worked with the Post Office to prosecute subpostmasters – currently estimated to number around 100 – accused of financial crime related to benefits, and there is a belief among peers and campaigners that these prosecutions could be unsafe and need to be reviewed.

Inadequate review

But the promised review is seen as inadequate in its current form, not helped by the fact that the government department is yet to even appoint a reviewer some six months on from its announcement.

Sikka said: “As far as I know, no [potential] victims have been contacted [by the DWP]. There has been no call for evidence and the minister said in private that there was no intention to look at any cases, but that it is just a case of reviewing the documentation.”

Sikka has been contacted by the families of people affected: “People have been in touch with me and they’re trying to defend a loved one who has passed away, saying, ‘Father was absolutely innocent’ and, ‘He never did anything that was wrong’.”

He was shown press clippings in which an affected subpostmaster protested his innocence, but Sikka said that finding evidence now is difficult given the time that has passed: “These people were so badly scarred that whatever they had in their lofts and in garden sheds, they destroyed over the years.”

Another peer, James Arbuthnot, who has campaigned for justice for subpostmasters for over 15 years, agrees the planned DWP review is inadequate. He said the Horizon Advisory Board, of which he is a member, has met the DWP regarding its review: “We strongly believe they ought to look at individual cases, and, at the moment, they are saying they are not going to do that. Unless they do, we think the review will be pointless and they might as well not do it.”

A DWP spokesperson said: “We announced an independent assurance review where Post Office members of staff were prosecuted by the department for welfare-related fraud. Over the past few years, we have taken comprehensive steps to recover material and review all relevant cases. To date, no documentation has been identified to show that Horizon data was essential to any DWP prosecutions.”

But former subpostmaster Christopher Head, who has been collecting evidence, told Computer Weekly that the same pattern is emerging with DWP prosecutions as in Post Office cases. “It is like how the Post Office responded, which is, ‘There is no link to Horizon,’ but it doesn’t necessarily have to be Horizon, it’s the culture behind the investigators,” he said.

Ron Warmington, chairman at forensic investigation firm Second Sight, which helped exposed the Post Office scandal, said a full investigation is needed but it is going to be “very difficult” due to a lack of evidence. He added that the alternative options are unpalatable.

“You can leave things as they are, which is monstrously improper and immoral, or you could pass another piece of legislation saying every single subpostmaster with DWP-related prosecution or conviction has it overturned.”

“So that leaves you only with the best option, which is to somehow work out retrospectively which of the guilty parties, according to the courts, were truly guilty and which ones weren’t.”

Hudgell Solicitors has evidence related to joint DWP/Post Office prosecutions and is preparing to take cases of potential wrongful conviction to the Criminal Cases Review Commission.

Hudgell Solicitors’ Neil Hudgell said: “All prosecutions involving the Post Office are polluted and need to be looked at.”

Delaying inevitable

Tim McCormack, a former subpostmaster and IT professional who campaigned for justice for subpostmasters affected by the scandal, fired a warning to the DWP via Twitter.

“Heads will roll, convictions overturned, honours rescinded and a public inquiry along with copious compensation for all affected,” he warned. “Pay careful attention to the remit [of the review]. That’ll soon change.”

In 2015, McCormack sent an email warning to the then Post Office CEO Paula Vennells, calling on her to act to stop the persecution of subpostmasters being blamed for Horizon discrepancies.

In the email to the disgraced former boss, he gave her three options: “Accept that many of the claimants in the Justice for Subpostmasters Alliance (JFSA) are honest and decent citizens whose lives were destroyed by your organisation, go to the press and see what happens, or await the inevitable judicial review where you will personally be exposed and perhaps leave yourself open to criminal charges.”

The Post Office Horizon scandal was first exposed by Computer Weekly in 2009, revealing the stories of seven subpostmasters and the problems they suffered due to accounting software (see below timeline of all Computer Weekly articles about the Horizon scandal, since 2009).

Timeline: Computer Weekly articles about the scandal since 2009

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