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On 20 August 2024, an outage affecting the Post Office’s Horizon system left approximately 3,000 counters unable to connect to the system at the start of business, according to an internal notice reported by Computer Weekly. The Post Office said service was restored at about 9:30 a.m. after traffic was redirected to a backup datacentre.
The incident was significant not because the available evidence proves that it corrupted accounts or caused new shortfalls, but because it disrupted a critical retail and accounting system already associated with wrongful prosecutions, disputed accounting data and a long-running public inquiry.
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What happened during the August 2024 outage?
The disruption began around the start of trading on Tuesday 20 August 2024. Affected Post Office counters could not connect to, or log into, Horizon, meaning staff could not carry out normal transactions through the electronic point-of-sale and accounting system.
The reported scale was approximately 3,000 counters. That figure came from a notice sent to subpostmasters and should be treated as an estimate, not a final audited count of branches. It does not establish that every Post Office branch was affected.
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For customers, the immediate consequences could include delayed opening transactions, unavailable services and uncertainty about whether business could be completed during the disruption. For postmasters, an outage could mean lost trading time and difficulty distinguishing a connectivity problem from a problem with transaction records.
The outage timeline
- 6:45 a.m.: The Post Office said it became aware of the incident.
- Opening time: About 3,000 counters were reportedly unable to connect to Horizon.
- Morning: The Post Office engaged Fujitsu’s major-incident team to investigate.
- About 9:30 a.m.: The Post Office said the problem had been resolved and affected branches had resumed normal trading.
- 21 August 2024: The Post Office said the problem involved a disconnect between branch systems and a Fujitsu datacentre. Traffic was redirected to a backup datacentre, according to Computer Weekly’s follow-up report.
What was the technical problem?
The public explanation supports a datacentre connectivity or authentication incident: branch systems lost their connection to a Fujitsu datacentre, and operations were restored by routing traffic through a backup facility.
That is more specific than simply saying Horizon “crashed”, but it is not a complete root-cause analysis. The available reporting does not establish whether the underlying fault was in Horizon software, the Post Office’s network, datacentre infrastructure, a supplier system or another component.
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It is also important not to confuse restoring access with proving that every interrupted transaction reconciled correctly. The reports cited here do not establish that transactions were lost or duplicated, that customer records were corrupted, or that new accounting shortfalls were created.
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What is Horizon?
Horizon is the Post Office’s electronic point-of-sale and accounting system. It replaced paper-based till processes and connected branch-level transactions with central systems. Fujitsu developed and operated the system for the Post Office, as outlined by the Criminal Cases Review Commission and explained in technical reporting by The Guardian.
That architecture creates a familiar technology risk: a local branch may have functioning premises, staff and hardware, yet still be unable to trade if central connectivity, authentication or datacentre services fail. A single dependency can therefore turn a central infrastructure problem into a geographically widespread business interruption.
Why another outage attracted attention
In an ordinary retail network, a service outage is primarily an availability and lost-revenue problem. Horizon carried greater significance because its electronic records had historically been used in disputes with branch operators over alleged shortfalls.
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Outbyte Driver Updater FREEScan for outdated or missing drivers - takes under a minuteDriver Scan →Outbyte PC Repair FREERepair Windows errors before they cause bigger problemsFix Now →Problems with Horizon were reported as early as 2009. The system later became central to prosecutions, suspensions and demands that operators repay alleged losses. The statutory Post Office Horizon IT Inquiry was established to examine the implementation and failings of Horizon over its lifetime, including the wrongful suspension, termination and prosecution of subpostmasters. The inquiry’s official website is available at postofficehorizoninquiry.org.uk.
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The August 2024 incident does not by itself show that accounts were corrupted, that the outage caused historic wrongful convictions, or that every alleged shortfall was caused by Horizon. Its importance is narrower and more defensible: it demonstrated continuing dependence on a system whose reliability and governance were already the subject of intense scrutiny.
Was Horizon really “collapsing”?
“Collapsing Horizon system” was a characterization used in contemporary coverage, not an official technical diagnosis. The outage was a serious service disruption, but one restored the same morning through a backup datacentre.
The incident did, however, arrive during a troubled attempt to replace Horizon. Contemporary reporting said the Post Office was dealing with leadership changes, awaiting nearly £1 billion in additional government funding for the replacement project and negotiating with Fujitsu over a possible new contract. Those circumstances provide context, but the available evidence does not prove that the replacement programme caused the August outage or that the entire Horizon platform was technically collapsing.
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The August 2024 event should be kept separate from an earlier nationwide Horizon outage on 5 November 2020.
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The Post Office initially gave a vague explanation involving memory problems in network devices. It later attributed that incident to a fault during a scheduled firmware update on a network appliance. The service was reportedly restored after the firmware was rolled back, with the Post Office giving a restoration time of 11:29 a.m. and describing the outage as lasting about 90 minutes. The later explanation was reported by Computer Weekly.
The comparison does not prove that the 2024 outage had the same cause. It illustrates why incomplete or changing explanations can deepen concern around a system already facing a trust deficit.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.What remains unknown?
Public reporting establishes the loss of connectivity, the estimated scale and the use of a backup datacentre. It does not answer every question a customer, postmaster or technology professional might reasonably ask. In particular, the available material does not establish:
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- whether all affected counters experienced identical symptoms;
- whether any transactions were lost, duplicated or delayed in reconciliation;
- the final number of impacted counters;
- whether postmasters received compensation for lost trading;
- whether a formal post-incident report was published; or
- what direct consequences the incident had for the Horizon replacement programme.
Those gaps matter because “the system was back online” answers an availability question, not necessarily an accounting-integrity or governance question.
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What has happened since?
The August 2024 outage is a historical event, not a current system crash. The wider Horizon matter remains active through the statutory inquiry, government responses and compensation work. The government’s inquiry collection was updated on 19 March 2026.
The Horizon Shortfall Scheme closed to new applications on 31 January 2026, although applications submitted before that deadline continue to be processed. The Post Office reported more than £967 million paid through the scheme as of 22 May 2026. That is a dated figure, not a total for September 2026; readers should consult the Post Office’s scheme information and data page for later updates.
Why the incident still matters
The central lesson is not simply that a computer system went offline for several hours. A critical public-facing network remained dependent on central infrastructure whose failure could prevent geographically dispersed counters from trading.
In the Horizon context, clear incident communication is especially important. Operators need to know whether they are facing a temporary connection failure, an accounting issue or a transaction-reconciliation problem. The 20 August 2024 outage exposed that operational dependency without, on the evidence available, proving a new accounting failure.
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