More than £1 billion has now been paid out to sub-postmasters affected by the Post Office Horizon scandal. Compensation has gone to more than 7,300 postmasters, including many falsely accused of taking money from their business when faulty accounting software was in fact to blame. The figures were published following warnings that the slow pace of payment was adding to the injustice experienced by the scandal’s victims.
The £1 billion figure is a total across the Horizon-related redress schemes, with data published by the government today. Ministers say it marks the Government’s ongoing commitment to deliver redress and justice to postmasters as swiftly as possible. But critics have accused the Government of inflicting more injustice on victims of the Post Office Horizon scandal by ignoring warnings about a flawed compensation scheme.
Post Office Minister Gareth Thomas said: “Since entering government, it has been our priority to speed up the delivery of compensation to victims of the Horizon Scandal and today’s milestone shows how much progress has been made.
“We are settling cases every day and getting compensation out more quickly for the most complex cases, but the job isn’t done until every postmaster has received fair and just redress.”
Since entering government, redress paid out to victims of the Horizon Scandal has more than quadrupled to £1,039 million. Ministers continue to review each scheme to ensure the process is as smooth as it can be, and welcome feedback and scrutiny from postmasters, campaigners and Parliament and recognise the tireless campaigning in this area over many years. Reforms to increase the roll out of redress has included the following steps.
Campaigner Sir Alan Bates last month revealed he had been offered a “take-it-or-leave-it” payment of just half of his original claim. Sir Alan was one of hundreds of sub-postmasters wrongly accused of dishonesty or incompetence after money appeared to go missing from their accounts when faulty accounting software was really to blame.
Sir Alan warned that the subpostmaster compensation schemes have been turned into “quasi-kangaroo courts”. And he was backed by Labour MP Liam Byrne, chair of the Commons business committee and a former Cabinet Minister, who said his committee had warned Ministers “the scheme must be independent, faster and fairer.”
Mr Byrne said last month: “We have warned Ministers again and again that the Horizon redress scheme simply isn’t fair. Yet time after time, our advice was ignored, rejected and rebuffed. And so injustice lives on. The very system designed to deliver redress now delivers delay.”
More than 900 subpostmasters were prosecuted between 1999 and 2015 after Horizon accounting software made it look as though money was missing from their accounts.
Many are still awaiting compensation despite the previous government announcing that those who have had convictions quashed are eligible for £600,000 payouts.
The group litigation order (GLO) scheme was set up to achieve redress for the 555 claimants who took the Post Office to the High Court between 2017 and 2019.
But Sir Alan, who was portrayed by actor Toby Jones in ITV drama Mr Bates Vs The Post Office, said promises that compensation schemes would be “non-legalistic” had turned out to be “worthless”.
He sent an email to members of his campaign group, calling on victims to take the Government to court over delays to financial redress, adding that a judicial review would “probably be the quickest way to ensure fairness for all”.
It is understood that 80% of postmasters in Sir Alan’s group have accepted a full and final redress or been paid most of their offer.