Compensation schemes for victims of the Post Office Horizon IT scandal will be improved, with a new appeals process and funded legal advice for post office operators, the government has announced.
Responding to the first part of the findings from a two-year public inquiry, the business secretary, Peter Kyle, said there would be a new appeals process for people who have accepted fixed-sum offers under the Horizon Shortfall Scheme (HSS), one of several compensation schemes.
Funded legal advice will be offered for appeals for those affected by the scandal, regarded as one of the worst miscarriages of justice in UK legal history, including for those who have previously settled for fixed sums.
The Post Office will close this scheme on 31 January rather than 27 November, to give post office operators who have not yet applied more time to put in applications.
Sir Gary Hickinbottom has been appointed as a senior lawyer to oversee the HSS scheme. The Post Office will also close the Suspension Remuneration Review scheme to new applications.
The government will publish a clear definition of what constitutes “full and fair redress” to provide greater clarity for claimants. Those who apply to the HSS scheme can choose between a £75,000 fixed sum or a full assessment of their case if they believe they are entitled to a higher amount.
The Post Office said it had made progress on compensation, with more than £1.2bn paid to 9,100 people across all schemes. “But there is still more work to do,” said its chair, Nigel Railton, adding that the state-owned body had been working closely with the Department for Business and Trade to speed up payments.
Volume 1 of the final Horizon inquiry report, published in July by Sir Wyn Williams, the retired judge who chaired the hearings into the scandal, looked at the “disastrous human impact” on thousands of post office operators wrongly held responsible for shortfalls in their branches caused by faulty software.
The report said Post Office bosses either knew, or should have known, the Horizon software supplied by Fujitsu was faulty but “maintained the fiction that its data was always accurate” when prosecuting branch owner-operators.
The report found that more than 13 people may have killed themselves as a result of the scandal and it drove at least 59 more to contemplate suicide.
About 1,000 post office operators were prosecuted and convicted by the Post Office between 1999 and 2015, the report said. A further 50 to 60 people, possibly more, were prosecuted but not convicted. The total number wrongly held responsible for losses was in the thousands, with many making up the shortfall out of their own pockets without ever being charged.
The government said it had accepted all but one of the recommendations of Williams’ initial report.
Kyle said: “We must never lose sight of the wronged post office operators affected by the Horizon scandal, which the inquiry has highlighted so well.
“There is clearly more to do to bring justice to those affected. The recommendations we are accepting today will be a crucial step towards this.”
The government is looking into establishing an independent body that will oversee and manage the redress for any future scandals.
Earlier this year, the government announced it would move forward with compensation for close family members of post office operators who were victims of the scandal. It also began work on a restorative justice project, a platform for victims to share stories.
A Fujitsu spokesperson said: “We have apologised for, and deeply regret, our role in subpostmasters’ suffering.”
The company is involved in the restorative justice programme. “We remain committed to providing our full cooperation to the inquiry as Sir Wyn prepares his final report and we are engaged with government regarding Fujitsu’s contribution to compensation.”
The Post Office minister, Blair McDougall, said:
“The inquiry’s recommendations are a key milestone in correcting past wrongs. By accepting them today, we are setting out a path forward towards concluding this horrific scandal.”
Ministers are considering handing over ownership of the Post Office to its operators. A review is looking at the ownership model of the Post Office, which is ultimately controlled by the government, including the possibility of mutualisation or a BBC-style charter model.
