Post Office signed £2.4m crisis PR contract while fighting legal claims from scandal victims

The Post Office awarded a £2.4m contract to a crisis PR company as it fights legal claims by victims of the Horizon IT scandal.

The state-owned body entered into a nearly four-year agreement for "strategic communications" and "public relations services" in March last year.

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It was the same month Lee Castleton, famous for being portrayed in ITV's "Mr Bates" drama, became the first sub-postmaster to launch High Court action against the Post Office and Fujitsu, maker of the faulty Horizon software.

The Post Office contracted DRD Partnership, which says it "promotes and protects clients' reputations at moments of challenge and change", from March 2025 to January 2029 for £2.4m.

DRD representatives were present at a recent High Court hearing on Mr Castleton's case.

The value of this deal was double that of the Post Office's preceding strategic communications contract with reputation managers Lexington Communications, running for four years from July 2022.

Services listed on DRD's website include litigation communications and crisis and reputation management.

The firm also has lower-value public contracts with West Midlands Fire Service and Hampshire and Isle of Wight Fire and Rescue Service, worth £170,000 and £40,000 respectively for far shorter periods of just under seven and just under four months.

Other than these public tenders, the public relations company does not disclose its clients.

But the contract with DRD is just one entered into by the Post Office.

Another is worth £960,000 for PR services such as "executive profiling and reactive media opportunities" and "consumer media positioning and narrative development" with PR agency Boldspace for just under four years, according to the government's tender website.

No Horizon PR work is done by Boldspace.

In total, the combined value of these Post Office communications contracts is £3.36m.

Both Boldspace and DRD declined to comment.

The Post Office also has internal media relations and marketing staff.

A Post Office spokesperson said: "Contracts are openly and transparently published on the government's Find A Tender website."

Defending new cases

It comes as the state-owned entity defends cases related to the Horizon IT scandal in which hundreds of sub-postmasters were wrongfully convicted of fraud and wrongful accounting.

Many more racked up large debts, became ill, or suffered a relationship breakdown as they sought to plug the incorrectly generated financial shortfalls. Some died by suicide.

As well as defending Mr Castleton's claim – as a Post Office lawyer argued in a January High Court hearing, "it has a duty to its shareholders to defend" – another Horizon victim is having her High Court case challenged.

Janet Skinner filed her case in December as she sought full redress for her wrongful conviction, having not received a final payment, being offered an insufficient interim sum and being asked for six different expert reports, her solicitor said at the time.

The Post Office is also fighting cases where the Horizon predecessor, called Capture, was used in convictions.

Two such prosecutions have been referred by the Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC) to the Court of Appeal as a potential miscarriage of justice.

Why does it matter?

The money would have been better spent aiding sub-postmasters as the spending was unjustified, according to Simon Goldberg, a solicitor for Lee Castleton and Janet Skinner.

"As an organisation that is owned by the Department of Business and Trade, it is effectively funded by the taxpayer. This means that there is a duty of care to ensure that its expenditure is justified and necessary, neither of which is the case here," Mr Goldberg said.

"Other than when it comes to paying redress to victims of the scandal, [the Post Office] spends money like water."

The money would be better spent on redress or supporting the charities set up to aid sub-postmaster victims and their families, Mr Goldber added.

"That could and would undoubtedly help with reputational issues, but the Post Office seems incapable, on any level, of taking positive measures like this."

So far, the Post Office's PR efforts have been unsuccessful, he said.

"For all the money it spends on crisis PR, the public has not seen any improvement whatsoever in the reputation of the organisation, and speaking from the coalface, the sub-postmaster cohort resents the largesse with which public funds are spent, except on the only deserving cause which could help to right past wrongs – namely, the victims and their families."

A Post Office spokesperson said: "We are an essential service for communities across the UK, and external communications agencies help us to promote the banking, parcel and travel products that our postmasters offer, increasing their relevance and income.

"The Post Office only runs the Horizon Shortfall redress scheme, which has now closed, and as at the end of March, had paid out £917m.

"We have begun a long-term programme of restorative justice for those impacted by the Horizon IT scandal."

How much has been spent?

From January 2025 to late February this year, £313,386.66 was spent on the two companies, according to information obtained via Freedom of Information (FOI) legislation.

Boldspace received £134,517.66 during the period, mostly for content partnerships, social media, and product PR, the Post Office said.

DRD received £178,850.

The contracts, however, are on the lower end of those entered into by the Post Office.

Other recent tenders include a £14.4m three-year contract with one of the so-called big four accountancy firms, KPMG, for forensic data mining.

Another £14.4m four-year contract was entered into between the Post Office and Code Worldwide for customer database management, hosting and maintenance, and campaign management.

Jobs are being cut at the company's head office as part of restructuring and a transformation plan, which includes franchising more than 100 directly managed branches.

(c) Sky News 2026: Post Office signed £2.4m crisis PR contract while fighting legal claims from scandal victim