A proposal by the Post Office campaigner Sir Alan Bates for an independent body to oversee future public sector compensation schemes is being “worked on” in government, after criticism of the treatment of victims of scandals.
Whitehall sources said a model was in planning in light of the traumatic experiences of those who had struggled to secure redress after scandals such as Horizon, contaminated blood and Windrush.
The body, which would operate at arm’s length from government, would be referred to by ministers in the event of major controversies in the future. It would establish the rules around compensation eligibility and help administer payments.
Sources said the plan was at an early stage but was being “actively worked on” and that ministers were pushing to find the right model.
There has been widespread criticism of the role government has taken in the running of redress schemes in the past.
The compensation scheme for victims of the Windrush scandal, in which a generation of people who made their lives in the UK after coming from the Caribbean were mistreated by the Home Office, was said to have “become a source of further trauma rather than redress”, according to the Commons home affairs select committee.
The complexity of the scheme to compensate victims of the infected blood scandal, in which more than 30,000 people contracted HIV and hepatitis C due to NHS failings, was said to have led to a situation in which people died before they were able to secure redress.
This week, Bates, who was the lead campaigner for post office operators persecuted and even prosecuted due to the accounting failures of the Horizon IT system, described the compensation scheme in that scandal as being a “quasi kangaroo court”.
In each case, the involvement of government was said to have undermined confidence of victims that they were being treated fairly and led to rules that were overly “legalistic”, it is claimed.
Bates, who revealed this weekend that he had been given a final “take it or leave it” offer that amounted to 49.2% of his original claim for redress, has said he believes that it is crucial to take future schemes out of government hands.
Last year, a National Audit Office report, titled Lessons learned: government compensation schemes, found recurring problems, but Bates said it had not addressed the problematic role of the state itself.
He argued that the independent arbiters in current schemes, including for the victims of Horizon, were being constrained by rules written by government officials.
Bates wrote in the Times that a new independent body would ensure a “consistent approach when financial redress or compensation is needed” over which representatives of claimants would be consulted to tailor any scheme to address all aspects of the scandal.
This combined body would be “charged with setting the parameters of the scheme as well as the assessment structure for claims to ensure it was fair”, he said.
Bates has voiced concern that the civil service will push back on his plan but Whitehall sources said serious work was being done to make such a model viable.
There are four schemes for victims of the Horizon scandal, which as of the start of this year had paid out £633m to more than 4,300 claimants.
A government spokesperson said: “We remain absolutely committed to righting past wrongs and working to ensure justice is delivered for victims.
“We pay tribute to all the postmasters who’ve suffered from the Post Office Horizon IT scandal, and we have quadrupled the total amount paid to postmasters since entering government, with £964m having now been paid to over 6,800 claimants.”
