Post Office Horizon Scandal: Compensation Payments

Lord Sahota Excerpts

Tuesday 11th February 2025 Lords Chamber

Asked by

[Lord Sahota]

To ask His Majesty’s Government what progress has been made in paying compensation to victims of the Post Office Horizon scandal.

[The Minister of State, Department for Business and Trade and Treasury (Baroness Gustafsson) (Lab)]

My Lords, the Government have made significant progress in delivering redress to victims of the Horizon scandal. As of 31 January, approximately £663 million was paid to over 4,300 claimants, an increase of £69 million on the previous month. Delivering swift redress remains a priority and we are grateful to the noble Lords, Lord Arbuthnot and Lord Beamish, for their support as part of the Horizon Compensation Advisory Board.

[Lord Sahota (Lab)]

I thank the Minister for the Answer and the Government for allocating £1.8 billion to settle the Post Office claims. As we all know, the police are investigating the conduct of Post Office managers in this whole sordid affair. Some of them could be charged with corporate manslaughter and perjury, so why are they still involved in administrating the Post Office compensation scheme? Also, why do the claimants not have free legal advice paid for by the scheme administrator? I am sure some find navigating through the whole legal system extremely difficult, especially some Asian sub-postmasters.

[Baroness Gustafsson (Lab)]

I thank my noble friend for the question. He is right: of the four schemes that are available, two of them are administered directly by the Post Office, while the other two are administered by the Department for Business and Trade. This is a matter that is currently being reviewed by the Department for Business and Trade, and there is consideration being given to whether that administration should be brought within the department. However, as part of that consideration, we cannot inadvertently create some environmental factors that may accidentally slow down the process of those claims. We are looking into this and trying to make sure that we deal with these expeditiously, while ensuring we do not inadvertently create unintended consequences by bringing those within the department.

With regard to the legal claims that are in process and whether those legal fees are addressable, there is significant legal support available for each of the claimants, and those legal fees are being reimbursed. But I understand that the process is a complex one, that people have suffered a great deal already and that the process can be quite cumbersome. Whilst this cannot always be avoided in all cases, the Government have worked hard to try to alleviate some of this by making some fixed-sum offers available, which go some way to making the process a lot simpler for claimants.

Economic Productivity

Lord Sahota Excerpts

Thursday 5th December 2024 Lords Chamber

[Lord Livermore (Lab)]

I am grateful to the noble Baroness for her Question. To answer her first point, she is incorrect to say that we did not impose any productivity criteria. We have introduced a 2% efficiency and productivity target in the NHS for this year and next year. We have also gone further than the previous Government did by extending that target to all government departments to ensure that we are improving the quality of public services while also improving value for money.

The noble Baroness mentioned planning. A significant programme of planning reform was announced by the Chancellor on her very first day in the Treasury. The previous Government had 14 years to announce those things but never did anything.

[Lord Sahota (Lab)]

My Lords, as a former small businessman, I welcome the Government’s recent announcements to help small businesses, including increasing the threshold for national insurance contributions from £5,000 to £10,500, and cutting business rates for shops, pubs and other leisure properties. Are there any more goodies to come in the future from this new Labour Government for small businessmen?

[Lord Livermore (Lab)]

I am grateful to my noble friend for his support for the policies we have announced for small businesses. He is absolutely right that we protected small businesses in the recent Budget. SMEs are, of course, an essential part of a growing economy. We set out clear plans for small businesses in our manifesto and we will deliver on those in the coming months.

Autumn Budget 2024

Lord Sahota Excerpts

Monday 11th November 2024 Lords Chamber

[Lord Sahota (Lab)]

My Lords, I will focus my comments about the Budget on local government funding. I served as a unitary councillor on Telford and Wrekin Council for 22 years, holding many positions in that time, including leader of the council. So I know very well how important local government service is to our citizens. In fact, at times, I felt that council services were even more important to people than central government, because they provided them with day-to-day needs such as housing, emptying bins, road repairs, adult social care, safeguarding vulnerable children, mental health provision and so on. All these services are the hallmark of our civilised society.

Councils can provide all these services only if they are properly funded. I am saddened to say that, when the previous Government were in charge from 2010 until now, we had nothing but cuts to our budget. This all started with George Osborne’s Budget of 2010. He did not value local government and the services it provided. Sadly, his legacy continued right up until the last election. This is typical of Conservative political ideology—not listening or caring for people’s everyday needs.

From 2010 to 2021, according to the National Audit Office, the average real-term spending power of every council has been reduced by over 27%. Spending power from central government funding in the same period went down by over 50%. Some services were cut by 70%, with cultural services cut by 43%, roads and transport by 40%, housing by 35% and trading standards by 50%. All these cuts are in real terms. Councils up and the down the country struggled and some even went bankrupt, unable to provide proper social care for vulnerable adults and children, fix potholes, provide homes for families or help rough sleepers.

I know how bad it was because I lived through it as a council leader and I still have the scars on my back from that time. That is why I wholeheartedly welcome the Chancellor’s Budget. I fully welcome the extra funding from our new Labour Government—a real-term increase of 3.2%, with £1.3 billion new grant funding, including over £600 million for social care. Earlier in this debate, the noble Lord, Lord Forsyth, who is not in his place now, suggested that the Budget did not include anything for special needs services. The Budget includes an extra £1 billion for children with special educational needs. It includes £233 million for families in temporary accommodation and to prevent homelessness; more to improve local bus services and to fix potholes; extra kinship allowance; and so on and so forth.

This is a typical Labour Government Budget: caring, sharing and listening to the people who really matter. It is, as the chair of the Local Government Association, Councillor Louise Gittins, said,

“a step in the right direction”.

I wholeheartedly agree with her. However, the damage that the previous Government has done to local government funding and its infrastructure will take a long time to rectify. I congratulate the new Chancellor on listening to the Local Government Association and acting upon its advice, but the black hole that the Conservative Government have left will take many years to fill.