Correspondence

Post Office (Horizon System) Offences Act 2024: updated open letter to postmasters

Published 30 July 2024

Further to the open letter published on 24 May please see an update: 

When you will be contacted 

The Ministry of Justice, Northern Irish Executive and Scottish Government are taking all reasonable steps to identify convictions within scope of the Post Office (Horizon System) Offences Act 2024. To do this the government is examining data spanning multiple decades and from multiple sources, including but not limited to the Post Office, the Police National Computer (PNC), and court records.   

The government said publicly that most letters confirming to individuals that their convictions have been quashed would be sent by the end of July. However, since then inconsistencies have been identified between the different datasets and the government has therefore decided to conduct extra checks. The first letters have been issued and we aim to identify most relevant convictions within the scope of the Act and to issue letters to relevant postmasters by the autumn. 

If you’ve had your conviction quashed but you’ve not got a letter

If an individual has not received a letter and they suspect their conviction has been quashed, they can register for this scheme using the GOV.UK service announced today or wait for the letter from the Ministry of Justice. There is no deadline by which individuals need to register. 

How your records will be updated  

You do not need to take any action. Your court and police records will be amended by His Majesty’s Courts & Tribunals Service (HMCTS) and the Police.  

The National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC) is leading work to ensure that records of your quashed convictions are removed from the Police National Computer (PNC). Since the PNC is the single national collection of convictions, this means that:  

• there will no longer be a record of your quashed conviction available for day-to-day policing 

• the quashed conviction will not be disclosed on any future criminal record check, such as a Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) check

However, some of the information relating to your quashed conviction and the investigation that led to it will need to be retained for the purposes of the Post Office Horizon IT Inquiry and the police investigation into the circumstances that led to the now-quashed convictions. Such information will be held securely and will not be available for wider use.  

Updating your records may take a few months, but we will send you another letter to confirm when all your records are updated.