Govt has not done enough to ensure compensation for Post Office Horizon victims

[TrueBlueTerrier]

https://committees.parliament.uk/commit ... n-victims/

(snipped)

Government has taken insufficient action to ensure that all entitled to compensation from the Post Office scandal have applied for it. In one of two new reports from the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) focused on the Department for Business and Trade (DBT), the PAC finds that many current and former postmasters affected by Horizon IT failings and associated miscarriages of justice are not yet receiving fair and timely compensation.

The PAC’s report finds that, based on figures provided by the Department in May 2025, only approx. one in five of letters sent to postmasters making them aware of one of the compensation schemes had been responded to. The 18,500 people written to by March ’25 as part of this scheme does not represent all those affected, and government has no plans for following up with people who are, or may be, eligible to claim under the schemes but who have not yet applied. DBT has not received any full claims under another of its schemes for those who had had convictions quashed by 2024 legislation; and for another scheme relating to convictions, 25 of 111 eligible people have not yet submitted a claim, some of which represent the most complex cases.

Sir Geoffrey Clifton-Brown MP, Chair of the Committee, said:

“The Post Office Horizon scandal was one of the UK’s worst ever miscarriages of justice. Thousands of people were failed deeply by the system. This Committee would have hoped to have found government laser-focused on ensuring all those eligible were fully and fairly compensated for what happened. It is deeply dissatisfactory to find these schemes still moving far too slowly, with no government plans to track down the majority of potential claimants who may not yet be aware of their proper entitlements. It is entirely unacceptable that those affected by this scandal, some of whom have had to go through the courts to clear their names, are being forced to relitigate their cases a second time.