The Bar Standards Board has revealed for the first time that it has 10 open investigations related to the Post Office Horizon scandal. The regulator has previously said that it is looking into the conduct of barristers who advised the Post Office, but never stated how many investigations were live. The Solicitors Regulation Authority has 20 live investigations into solicitors and firms.

The BSB figure appeared in an update in the Legal Services Board papers for its meeting next week and has been confirmed to the Gazette by the bar regulator.

A spokesperson for the BSB said: ‘We recognise the impact the Horizon scandal has had on the lives of sub-postmasters and mistresses and their families and communities and the effect on public confidence in the bar. We will take enforcement action where barristers have failed in their professional duties in the Post Office cases. We are progressing investigations and currently have ten open investigations which we expect will progress to the Independent Decision-Making Body (IDB) this year.’

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Bar Standards Board says that barristers’ ‘zeal’ in representing their clients putting ethics in doubt | Law Gazette

Barristers were involved not only as counsel in the prosecution of sub-postmasters but as strategic advisers about overall strategy and policy, including being commissioned to report on the safety of convictions. They also advised and represented the Post Office during the Bates litigation including the ill-fated application to have Mr Justice Fraser recused. One key question for regulators will be to what extent barristers relied on assurances from the Post Office that Horizon was reliable and whether they challenged that assumption enough.

The statutory inquiry will publish the substantive section of its final report, which will look at lawyers’ conduct, later this year. The SRA and BSB are both likely to wait until after this report comes out before taking any action against individuals.

Flora Page KC, who represented some of the victims during the inquiry, posted on Linkedin last week to mark the fifth anniversary of the first batch of convictions being quashed in the Royal Courts of Justice. Page said it was clear that the legal profession is at risk of ‘losing its way altogether’ and urged the SRA and BSB to act quickly once the inquiry report is out.

 

She added: ‘The scale of wrongdoing and self-interest from lawyers acting for Post Office Ltd and Fujitsu - both during the original scandal and now in the long-running compensation scandal - cannot be put down to a few bad apples. There are systemic problems, and the profession needs to have a serious reckoning.’