Between 1997 and 2000 the Post Office implemented a new IT system called Horizon. This system is now known to be responsible for accounting discrepancies that suggested, for example, shortfalls of cash in Post Office branches.62 At the time, the Post Office considered some of these shortfalls to be caused by branch staff such as postmasters, resulting in dismissals, attempts to recover apparent losses, and in some cases prosecutions. Such actions had terrible personal and financial consequences for honest, hard-working staff, wrongly accused of misconduct and crime. In May 2020 the Post Office set up the Horizon Historical Shortfall Scheme to compensate staff who may have experienced cash shortfalls reported by the Horizon system through the normal course of their duties, and repaid shortfalls from their own funds.63