Postmasters – have your say on Horizon and the way forward

Postal, Postmasters August 26 2021

CWU launches nationwide survey to ensure frontline members’ voices are heard loud and clear in Sir Wyn Williams’s Judicial Inquiry into the Horizon scandal…

 “We want as many postmasters as possible to take part in this process,” says CWU assistant secretary Andy Furey after sending out a key communication to people running this essential service in every part of the UK.

“Sir Wyn’s team have asked us, along with other stakeholders, organisations and individuals, to submit our own contributions to his Inquiry – and of course we will be doing so,” he explains.

“But we want to include as much feedback from around the country as we can and so we’ve decided to send out a seven-question survey to postmasters, from which we can gauge the strength of feeling on each of the main issues.”

Former High Court judge Sir Wyn was appointed to his role by the Government, who ordered a full judicial inquiry into the Horizon scandal, in which hundreds of postmasters were wrongly accused, sacked, prosecuted and even in several cases jailed because of a faulty computer system that wrongly indicated financial discrepancies in post offices – despite the fact that no such discrepancies actually existed.

The inquiry, which is currently in its initial stages, has been instructed to deliver recommendations in terms of lessons to  be learned from this scandal and also any changes or reforms that the Post Office should undergo in order to prevent such a miscarriage of justice occurring again and to improve itself as an institution.

“While we continue to insist that those who made the decisions that led to this scandal must be held fully accountable, we want to also focus – and our survey questions reflect this – on what the future shape of the Post Office should be,” Andy continues.

“And, although we, the CWU, have a specific agenda of demands, we want some detailed feedback from our members out there on these areas of policy and also to provide the best way for as many of their opinions as possible to be expressed.

“The responses to this survey will inform our own work in putting together our detailed submission to Sir Wyn Williams’s Inquiry and will, we are sure, add further weight to the growing pressure for real and substantial change.”

The survey asks about the culture within the Post Office, relationships between postmasters and their employer, representation of postmasters, their status, and their awareness of recent Post Office policy announcements.

Mark Baker

It also asks the individual whether they wish to make further points in regard to these or other contemporary issues.

Mark Baker, secretary of the CWU Postmaster Branch, says: “It’s so important that our postmasters respond to this survey, which, as Andy has said, make a huge contribution to the inquiry and towards the positive outcome we all want to see.

“As branch secretary, I’ll be making every effort myself to encourage people to take part in the survey and make their voices heard.

“Postmasters – it’s time to have your say.”