The Business and Trade Committee has demanded the Government take action to speed up the process of redress for the sub-postmasters, who were wrongfully accused of fraud and theft as a result of faulty IT software.
Campaigners who helped expose the Post Office scandal also said they would rather they had full compensation than recognition in the New Year Honours List.
Here The i Paper looks at how the victims are still being let down.
The report states that the Post Office has maintained its role despite the Committee “repeatedly expressing concern” at Post Office Ltd’s involvement. “This is because at the height of the Horizon scandal the Post Office acted as ‘judge, jury and executioner’ when pursuing sub-postmasters”, it adds.
Slow payments
By far the biggest issue is, of course, the slow payments being handed out to the victims, despite having to wait years already for compensation.
The Committee has called for the appeals panel to be beefed up in order for it to meet full time rather than twice a week to process the claims more swiftly.
The committee has previously called for the Government to introduce legally binding timeframes, with financial penalties paid to victims if those targets are not met. But the previous government rejected that suggestion in May, saying it would have “no positive effect” on speeding up claims and “might unjustly penalise solicitors for issues out of their control”.
Poor design of scheme
It has prompted the Committee to recommend that any claims that have to be resubmitted go through an external mediation process, rather than having to navigate the laborious HSS process each time, while it also called for assessors to give claimants “the benefit of the doubt” more often.
The company has received £82 million in fees for work on the HSS and overturned convictions schemes, while overall legal fees have made up £136 million of the cost of administering the Post Office-led schemes since 2020 – 27 per cent of the actual compensation paid out. Committee chair Liam Byrne said the legal costs were “out of control”.
…but no legal advice for claimants
According to the Committee’s report, “the complex questionnaire that acts as the gateway to the scheme”, which it said “acts against them receiving the full redress they are due”. Claimants that have legal advice from the start see their compensation offers double, the report adds.
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