Horizon IT Scandal: Racist Language Exposed in Post Office Guidance
The Post Office used racist language in official guidance for investigating sub-postmasters wrongly accused as part of the Horizon IT scandal.
The guidance, published between 2008 and 2011, required investigators to group suspects based on their racial features and assigned numbers to sub-postmasters according to their race, including "Chinese/Japanese types," "Dark Skinned European Types," and "Negroid Types." The document was discovered as part of a freedom of information request, and the Post Office has apologized for the use of racist language and condemned it as "abhorrent." The scandal has resulted in the prosecution of more than 700 sub-postmasters and has been described as the "most widespread miscarriage of justice in UK history."