FINALLY. A public inquiry has now begun into the Post Office scandal that saw more than 700 subpostmasters and subpostmistresses wrongfully accused of theft, fraud and false accounting between 2000 and 2014. Men and women who saw their finances and their reputations destroyed. Some of whom were even imprisoned. And yet not one of them was in the wrong.

The Post Office chose to believe that they were guilty and pursued cases against them. The real culprit, however, was a faulty computer system designed by Fujitsu and imposed on branches by Post Office management. Despite complaints about the system, the Post Office prosecuted 736 men and women.

The first witness to give evidence at the public inquiry, Baljit Sethi, told the BBC on Monday, “What the Post Office has done to us … is unforgiveable. The people who did this should be brought to justice.”

This is both true and possibly unlikely. The truth is that when it comes to conflicts between citizens and institutions in the UK, all too often the institution wins. Or all too often avoids a proper accounting.

The families who lost loved ones at Hillsborough when fans were killed in the crush at the Sheffield Wednesday ground in 1989 have seen only one conviction in the years since. Graham Mackrell, then secretary of Sheffield Wednesday, was found guilty of a single safety offence and fined £6,500.

Read More: How long do the Hillsborough families have to wait for justice?

Last year two former South Yorkshire police officers and the force’s former solicitor were acquitted of charges of perverting the course of justice. Justice for the 97 remains a rallying cry for Liverpool fans and their families, but you couldn’t say it was a reality.

The Grenfell tragedy is currently the subject of an ongoing public inquiry, but, as yet, no one has been found responsible for the deaths of 72 innocent people. Five years on it is only this week that Housing Secretary Michael Gove has finally promised to put the onus on developers rather than leaseholders when it comes to the cost of removing flammable cladding. (Meanwhile, the Scottish Government was accused earlier this year of pushing back the introduction of a ban on risky cladding).

In the case of the Post Office scandal, Paula Vennells, who became CEO in 2012, finally spoke out about the scandal in 2019.

“I am truly sorry we were unable to find both a solution and a resolution outside of litigation and for the distress this caused,” she said, one of those non-apology apologies that those in positions of authority are so fond of these days. She stepped down in 2020, but not before being awarded a CBE. She also walked away with a £4.5million pay out.

It's reported that some 33 of 736 Post Office victims have died before the public inquiry began this week. It is also suggested that a small number of those may have taken their own lives. The terrible reality of this scandal is that lives have been ruined. But not among those at the top. When is it ever?