The government has announced that postmasters who played a key role in exposing the Post Office Horizon IT scandal will have access to a new compensation scheme.

From today, the 555 postmasters who were part of the first legal action against the Post Office can start preparing their compensation claims ahead of submitting applications next year.

Business secretary Grant Shapps said the government will pay £900 per claimant as part of ‘reasonable’ legal fees to prepare their claim.

Following consultation with postmasters, it has been decided the scheme will be delivered directly by the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy through independent claims facilitators following an alternative dispute resolution model. The government’s intention is that cases can be settled without the need to go to court.

An independent advisory board of parliamentarians and academics, including Kevan Jones MP and Lord Arbuthnot who have campaigned for the wronged postmasters, will be set up to ensure the scheme works effectively.

In a written ministerial statement today, Shapps said: ‘I am acutely aware of the pain and suffering that these postmasters and their families have been through as part of the Horizon IT scandal. As business secretary I will always stand by them.

‘Today’s compensation scheme will ensure these trailblazing postmasters who did so much to uncover this injustice receive the compensation they deserve.’

According to the government's announcement, the 555 claimants in Bates v Post Office received £43m plus legal costs in a settlement in 2019, but the majority of this money was taken up by the associated costs of funding the case. They were then ineligible for the Historical Shortfall Scheme that was subsequently set up to compensate others affected by the scandal.

Many of these people were convicted or made bankrupt on the basis of the faulty Horizon IT system and the Post Office subsequent decision to wrongfully pursue them through the courts for false accounting or theft. This continued for more than a decade and the events surrounding the prosecutions are currently subject to an ongoing statutory inquiry, which will hear evidence tomorrow from lawyers representing victims about how successful the existing compensation scheme has been.

The government said that as of 1 December 2022, the Post Office has paid out more than £12m in compensation to those with overturned historical convictions.

On the Historical Shortfall Scheme, as of 30 November 2022, 93% of eligible claimants have received offers of compensation, although it was not stated what proportion has accepted these offers.

 

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