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Commander Stephen Clayman said investigators need to almost double the size of the team working on the case if files are to be submitted to prosecutors for charging decisions by late 2027 or early 2028.

The Metropolitan Police-led inquiry currently has 111 staff but estimates it requires 210 investigators to meet that timetable. The projected budget for 2026/27 and beyond stands at up to £19.3 million, against a recently awarded Home Office special grant of £2.8m.

Mr Clayman said victims had already waited too long for answers.

“Many of these victims have been living with the impact of this for 24 years, some have already died and many more are reaching older age,” he said.

“Put simply, we do not have the luxury of time and must provide answers as soon as possible to those who so desperately deserve them.”

Police have so far interviewed 13 of 53 suspects under investigation, including seven this year. Mr Clayman described the inquiry as “hugely complex”, with more than eight million documents requiring forensic review.

He warned: “Without this, we risk our timelines being pushed back by as much as five years, which we know is unacceptable for those who have already been living with this for decades.”

Around 1,000 subpostmasters were wrongly prosecuted after Fujitsu’s faulty Horizon accounting system made it appear money was missing from branches. Some victims were imprisoned, financially ruined or ostracised, while others took their own lives in what is regarded as one of Britain’s gravest miscarriages of justice.

Public attention intensified after ITV broadcast Mr Bates Vs The Post Office.

A UK government spokesperson said: “The National Police Chiefs’ Council and the Metropolitan Police Service are carrying out an investigation into potential criminality in the prosecutions of sub postmasters and the wider presentation of the Horizon IT system as robust.

“The Home Office has provided £3.2m since 2023 to the MPS for Op Olympos and has allocated a further £2.8m in 26/27 and is considering requests for further funding.”