UK (Parliament Politics Magazine) – The Commons business committee has called for the Post Office to be excluded from administering the Horizon compensation schemes due to slow payments.
MPs have raised concerns over the slow compensation process for victims of the Post Office Scandal and urged the government to impose fines if the delays continue.
A report issued on Wednesday, exactly one year after the airing of Mr Bates vs the Post Office on ITV, reveals that payments for victims are still not being processed quickly enough.
As reported by The Guardian, the report shows that state-owned Post Office Ltd has spent £136 million on legal fees for the four Horizon redress schemes, with £82 million paid to one firm, Herbert Smith Freehills. These legal costs account for 27% of the payouts issued so far.
The Committee chairman, Labour MP Liam Byrne stated, “Years on from the biggest miscarriage of justice in British legal history, thousands of Post Office Horizon victims still don’t have the redress to which they’re entitled for the shatter and ruin of their lives.”
The Horizon compensation program includes four distinct schemes, two of which are overseen by the Post Office. These are the overturned convictions scheme, for those whose convictions were reversed, and the second Horizon shortfall scheme (HSS) is for post office operators who were not involved in the group litigation led by Alan Bates.
The Department for Business and Trade is managing two more schemes, one for group litigation claimants and the other for those whose convictions were overturned by Parliament, rather than the judiciary.
Mr Bates has warned he could take strict legal action if the remaining claims were not settled by March 2025.
The committee, chaired by Liam Byrne, pointed out some progress but described the redress scheme as “poorly designed” and too slow in delivery payments.
It also recommended offering victims legal tips at the start and setting strict deadlines for claims to be approved, with financial penalties if they are delayed and excluding the Post Office from managing any of the schemes.
The report revealed that £499 million of the £1.8 billion fund has been paid out, but 14% of those who applied to the Post Office’s HSS before the 2020 deadline are still awaiting compensation.
One spokesperson from the Post Office stated, “Working alongside the government, we are focused on paying redress as swiftly as possible.”
He continued, “Our spend with external law firms is kept under constant review with a significant portion having been spent on establishing the Horizon shortfall scheme and overturned convictions redress process, thus enabling us to pay redress to victims of the scandal.”
The Post Office spokesperson confirmed that it is ready to hand over control of the administration of the two payout schemes it currently manages.
Gareth Thomas, the Post Office minister, mentioned in December that the Labour government was thinking about the possibility of assuming control of the schemes from the firm.
A global law firm, Herbert Smith Freehills asserted that it was confident that its fees matched the typical levels for such cases.
In response, the government stated it is “working tirelessly” to resolve claims “at a faster rate than ever before.”
BBC reported that from 1999 to 2015, many sub-postmasters were falsely accused and convicted due to mistakes in the Horizon system which showed payment was missing.
Seema Misra, who was falsely convicted, was in the early weeks of pregnancy when she was sent to prison.
In an interview with the BBC after being awarded an OBE in the King’s New Year list for her campaigning efforts, she described the award as a recognition of the “scale of the injustice and scandal.”
The proposed suggestions from the committee were previously rejected by the Conservative government.