One Year On: Putting Postmasters at the Centre of the Horizon Response
This anniversary belongs first and foremost to the postmasters, families and communities whose lives were changed by Horizon. For many, the harm did not end when convictions were quashed, redress schemes were announced or the public conversation shifted to the next stage of accountability and redress. It has continued in livelihoods, reputations, relationships, health, identity and trust.
Sir Wyn Williams’ first Inquiry report was significant because it helped bring that long-term harm more fully into view. It recognised that the Horizon scandal was never only about technology, accounting systems or redress. It was, and remains, about human harm: harm that is personal, relational and still being carried by those affected.
Recommendation 19 of that report called for restorative justice to be developed as part of the wider response to the scandal. That recommendation mattered because it reflected something that had become increasingly clear through the experiences of those harmed: financial redress is essential, but it cannot, on its own, repair the full impact of what happened or address the need to be heard, acknowledged and treated with dignity.