Government Rejects Independent Body for Post Office Compensation Claims
In response to a report by the Business and Trade Committee of MPs in March, the government has rejected the recommendation to appoint an independent body to handle financial claims by victims of the Post Office scandal.
The report had called for an independent intermediary to handle every stage of the sub-postmasters’ claims, citing frustration over red tape and delays in payments. It also demanded that the Post Office be removed from involvement in the three main compensation schemes.
However, the Department for Business and Trade (DBT) stated in its response that setting up a new body would take months and cost millions, funds that should instead be allocated towards compensating the affected postmasters.
While acknowledging that decisions in redress cases are already independent of the Post Office, the DBT argued that removing the company from the process entirely would only cause further delays.
The Post Office scandal, which involved bugs and errors in the Horizon accounting system operated by Fujitsu, resulted in hundreds of sub-postmasters being wrongly convicted of stealing. These convictions dated back from 1995 to 2015 and had severe consequences for the victims, including financial ruin and ostracization from their communities. Some even took their own lives.
The scandal gained renewed attention after the drama Mr Bates Vs The Post Office was broadcast on ITV, prompting government action to expedite the clearing of names and payments of compensation.
In its response to the committee’s report, business minister Kevin Hollinrake stated that as of 24 April 2024, over £196 million has been paid to more than 2,800 claimants across the three Post Office Horizon schemes.
The government’s reply also ruled out the possibility of financial penalties for a failure to meet the legally binding timeframe in the redress process, stating that claimants already receive compensation for the time taken to resolve their claims.
The update on the compensation process was delivered during the statutory public inquiry into the Horizon IT scandal, where a key barrister for the Post Office, Simon Clarke, testified. Clarke claimed that senior Post Office staff had defended the Horizon system “out of an almost religious panic” and that he was “misled and deceived” by the company regarding crucial information in the case of Seema Misra.
Misra, a former sub-postmistress in West Byfleet, was suspended in 2008 and later jailed while pregnant for 15 months in 2010. Her conviction was overturned by the Court of Appeal in 2021.
Answering a question from inquiry chair Sir Wyn Williams, Clarke stated that he was misled on a wider basis, adding that the Post Office had consistently denied any issues with the Horizon system despite being aware of its flaws.
Clarke clarified that he was not a prosecuting barrister for the Post Office, but rather the one who stopped the prosecutions after discovering the company’s deception. He stated, “I was not a prosecuting barrister, I was the barrister who stopped the prosecutions.”
