The Legal Presumption That Machines Are Working Correctly

How did the Post Office deliver one of the biggest miscarriages of justice in British history?

My guest Nick Wallis, is a journalist and radio presenter who has written a book called The Great Post Office Scandal which explains how a billion pound IT system, unleashed an enormous legal, ethical and political scandal.

As Nick explains on the show, hundreds of sub-postmasters were alleged to have engaged in theft, false accounting and/or fraud and were taken to court by the Post Office. This resulted in criminal convictions, imprisonment, loss of reputation and livelihood, bankruptcy, divorce, and even suicide amongst those involved.

It subsequently transpired that it wasn’t people that were at fault, but rather the billion point IT system that the Post Office had installed as part of a modernisation program. In our discussion, we explore how the Scandal occurred, Nick’s experience in investigating it and what lessons we can learn.

This is a tale of appalling human decision-making with serious consequences. It’s about as human risk-relevant as it gets.

To learn more about the subjects we discussed on the show:

Nick’s website - https://www.nickwallis.com/

Nick’s book The Great Post Office Scandal - https://bathpublishing.com/products/the-great-post-office-scandal

The BBC Radio 4 podcast - https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000jf7j

BBC Radio Surrey - https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/live:bbc_radio_surrey

The BBC Radio Surrey Twitter account - https://twitter.com/BBCSurrey

The Justice for Subpostmaster’s Alliance - https://www.jfsa.org.uk/

BBC TV’s Inside Out South program featuring Nick - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LQ2FLuFVGMg

The Wikipedia page for the Post Office Scandal with links to court hearings and other relevant documents - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Post_Office_scandal

Infected Blood Scandal - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Contaminated_blood_scandal_in_the_United_Kingdom#Background

Windrush Scandal - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windrush_scandal

Hillsborough Disaster - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hillsborough_disaster

Professor Richard Morehead - https://socialsciences.exeter.ac.uk/law/staff/moorhead/

Darren Jones MP on Artificial Intelligence - https://thebristolcable.org/2018/06/artificial-intelligence-robots-and-the-future-of-society-interview-with-darren-jones/

The Horizon Scandal Fund - https://www.horizonscandalfund.org/