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Accounting giant EY faces investigation over Post Office Horizon audit | |
(33 minutes later) | |
Accounting giant EY is being investigated over its audits of the Post Office in relation to the Horizon scandal from March 2015 to March 2018. | Accounting giant EY is being investigated over its audits of the Post Office in relation to the Horizon scandal from March 2015 to March 2018. |
The Financial Reporting Council (FRC), the UK's accounting regulator, said it will check whether EY met its standards "with particular reference to matters related to the Horizon IT system". | The Financial Reporting Council (FRC), the UK's accounting regulator, said it will check whether EY met its standards "with particular reference to matters related to the Horizon IT system". |
The software developed by Fujitsu was at the heart of the Post Office scandal that saw hundreds of postmasters wrongly convicted. | The software developed by Fujitsu was at the heart of the Post Office scandal that saw hundreds of postmasters wrongly convicted. |
EY said it takes its responsibilities "extremely seriously" and will be "fully cooperating" with the FRC. | EY said it takes its responsibilities "extremely seriously" and will be "fully cooperating" with the FRC. |
The Post Office declined to comment. | The Post Office declined to comment. |
The news of the investigation comes as sub-postmaster campaigners Lee Castleton, Seema Misra, and Chris Head will be made OBEs at Windsor castle on Wednesday. | |
More than 900 sub-postmasters were prosecuted for stealing because of incorrect information from the Horizon computer system. It has been called the UK's most widespread miscarriage of justice. | More than 900 sub-postmasters were prosecuted for stealing because of incorrect information from the Horizon computer system. It has been called the UK's most widespread miscarriage of justice. |
The Post Office itself took many cases to court, prosecuting 700 people between 1999 and 2015. | The Post Office itself took many cases to court, prosecuting 700 people between 1999 and 2015. |
One of the unanswered questions of the Post Office inquiry is where all the money wrongly taken from victims of the Horizon scandal actually went. | |
The FRC wants to focus specifically on the role of statutory auditors - people legally required to review the financial statements of a company - in meeting the auditing standards of that time. | |
However, the FRC said on Wednesday the recent public hearings carried out as a broader inquiry into the Horizon scandal did not cover EY's audits of the Post Office, so will not be covered by its investigation. | |
In June 2024, the inquiry was told the Post Office's auditors EY warned Alice Perkins, the Post Office's chair in 2011, that the Horizon software was "a real risk". | |
EY was also noted as asking "does it capture data accurately?". | |
Notes from the meeting with EY mention a sub-postmaster said there was "a systems problem" with Horizon. | |
The inquiry heard that Ms Perkins did not raise concerns internally about this nor did she mention the EY meeting when questions about Horizon came up in years that followed. |