A victim of the Post Office Horizon scandal has told Sky News that plans for a new appeals process are “unacceptable” on several fronts.
Chris Head, once the youngest sub-postmaster in the UK but who lost everything when he was wrongly accused of theft, spoke out after the business secretary Jonathan Reynolds told MPs the mechanism would only apply to claimants in the Horizon Shortfall Scheme (HSS) who have “new information”.
Mr Reynolds said: “It will be delivered by my department in house, and we will apply the lessons learned from address schemes to date to ensure that the process is easy for postmasters to engage with and the outcomes are delivered at pace”.
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The Department for Business and Trade said it would be “seeking input” from the Horizon Compensation Advisory Board, postmasters and their representatives and would provide further updates on eligibility and how to apply when the scheme is launched.
Mr Reynolds said that would be in a “matter of months”.
But Mr Head, who has also campaigned vigorously on behalf of other victims of the faulty Horizon software, said while he welcomed the new appeals process, there were several flaws he would work to overturn during the consultation phase.
“The remit of the appeal process cannot be restricted to only those that produce new evidence.
“Many people have been materially disadvantaged by not having access to legal advice and interim payments that were only introduced in November 2022”, he countered.
“This appeals mechanism must be available to everyone that has settled claims since the scheme launched in 2020 to ensure they are properly compensated back to a position they would have been in had the scandal not happened.
Christopher Head
“The other concern is that Minister Reynolds said this will be implemented in months, this is unacceptable, it could be rolled out within weeks modelled on the other schemes the Department is running.
“I personally believe this appeals mechanism should have been ran by an external independent body outside the remit of Post Office and the Department for Business who themselves as the sole shareholder have a responsibility for this scandal.”
The HSS was established for those people who were not convicted or part of the Group Litigation Order scheme.
It originally had a £75,000 threshold and critics have long argued that it did not go far enough, with claimants suffering especially from a lack of specialist knowledge such as over tax.
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Former engineer defends Horizon system
In an update on the wider redress progress, Mr Reynolds told MPs that, to date, approximately £289m had been paid to over 2,800 claimants across the four schemes.
He also said first payments had been made under the Horizon conviction redress scheme.
A target would be in place. he said, to make the first offer to 90% of claimants who have submitted a full claim within 40 working days.
“As we stand and sit here today in the shadow not just of this scandal, but of Grenfell, of infected blood and several more, I know it is the firm conviction of everyone in this House that we must do better. This is not an issue of politics, but of justice.”
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‘Emotional’ meeting with sub-postmasters
He said that more than 50% of cases on the overturned conviction scheme had been fully settled while more than 200 claims had been settled in the group litigation scheme, with 50% of eligible claims having been received.
“Progress has also been made on implementing the £75,000 fixed sum awards on the Horizon shortfall scheme”, he added.
“As of 30th August, over 1350 claimants who previously settled below the £75,000 threshold have been offered top ups to bring them to this amount, and the Post Office will shortly begin making fixed sum offers to new claimants.”
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More than 700 sub-postmasters were prosecuted by the Post Office and given criminal convictions between 1999 and 2015, as Fujitsu’s faulty Horizon accounting system made it appear as though money was missing at their branches.
While criminal convictions have been overturned, the pace and ease of the compensation process remains a big bone of contention.
The public inquiry into how the miscarriages of justice were able to play out is due to resume later this month.