Further information about the Operation Olympos December 2025 update
Below are more details about the investigation, as part of our December 2025 update.
Speaking to subpostmasters (SPMs)
You may wonder why we have spoken in depth to some SPMs and not others.
While all affected SPMs are victims, we are looking at the actions of a number of people in relation to the offences of perverting the course of justice. As and when criminal and civil cases feature in our investigation, we will contact SPMs. This will increase over time. But as we have been clear, we are not reinvestigating every wrongful conviction, or civil matter.
Arrests
We have not made any arrests at this time. Instead we interview under caution and can use additional search warrants to gather material where necessary.
The Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984 Code of Practice G provides assistance and guidance to police officers in the exercise of statutory powers to arrest a person who is involved, or suspected of being involved, in a criminal offence.
Failure to observe the code may mean that both the arrest and the conduct of any subsequent investigation are open to question.
With historical enquiries like this, code G may not always be used. However, an interview under caution is the same as if they were under arrest. Should there be a necessity to use a power of arrest, we certainly will but cannot do so just for impact.
Pursuing corporate manslaughter offences
Our focus remains perverting the course of justice. However, following the Part One Post Office Horizon IT Inquiqry (POHITI) report, we feel it is prudent to seek some advice from the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS).
This has not yet happened, will take time, and may or may not happen. Anything that deviates from our primary investigative strategy may ultimately delay the overall investigation, which is why we are so focused.
Trial dates
At present, our focus is on getting some charge decisions in place and this may happen in late 2027. If that were the case, some trials could be starting in late 2028 to early 2029. However, this remains the aspiration and ultimately, trial dates will be set by the court.
Length of the investigation
Whilst the investigation began in January 2020, this first phase was mostly about gathering information and assessing it. From October 2020, in the lead up to the first court of appeal cases, the investigation started looking at cases of perverting the course of justice and perjury.
There then began a long series of legal discussions between the Met Police and Post Office solicitors over full access to the material the investigation needed to reasonably progress. This took until April 2023 to resolve. This then meant that over an eight month period Olympos took possession of over one million potentially relevant documents which needed to be assessed as evidence of offences. This was undertaken by a very small team.
This in turn led to the decision to move to a national policing response due to the vastly increased scope and scale of the investigation. This has been a challenging logistical exercise. A national investigation involving all UK police forces is unprecedented and took time to set up.
Complexity of the investigation
There is no getting away from the fact that this is complex due to the volume of material and number of people involved. This is a criminal investigation, which is held to a criminal standard of proof, not a civil standard. That is a high bar to both charge and achieve a successful conviction.
Disclosure was a central feature of the miscarriage of justice, and this means that the police investigation’s approach to disclosure must be spot on. Nothing else will do and the volume of material to assess is indeed larger than many other major inquiries.
Therefore, to rush, or take shortcuts, may risk a successful prosecution.
Our progress
It isn't the case at all that we're not making much progress. Unfortunately, longer term major investigations such as this may seem slow from the outside looking in, but every day investigators are working hard and making great progress. We see this from the volume of material now being assessed and early advice files being passed to the CPS, so that our ongoing investigation is in the right direction.
Home Office funding
There is always a risk that we will not get sufficient Home Office funding, and policing cannot contribute any more to this without it. However, we will use any additional funding as carefully and wisely as possible, assessing any impact on the overall length of the investigation once we know more.
We will always have a difficult balance between timeliness and scope of the investigation. We're very aware of this and will update you over the course of 2026.