Post Office Horizon IT Scandal: Compensation Debate
Full Debate: Read Full DebateDepartment: Department for Business and Trade
Brendan Clarke-Smith
Main Page: Brendan Clarke-Smith (Conservative - Bassetlaw)Department Debates - View all Brendan Clarke-Smith's debates with the Department for Business and Trade
Post Office Horizon IT Scandal: Compensation
Brendan Clarke-Smith Excerpts(1 year, 4 months ago)
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Kevin Hollinrake
I thank the hon. Member for his work in challenging us in this area. I would probably push back a bit. It is complicated to assess loss. Both I and the right hon. Member for North Durham sat in on a long call with the HSS panel recently and some eminent lawyers gave us a lot of confidence that this was being done right, on an inquisitorial basis, but it is complicated to assess those losses. I would refer to Sir Wyn Williams’s comments. He basically says that we should carry on what we are doing. He would not necessarily have advised this route in the first place, but what he says now is that the best thing we can do is push on with the frameworks we have in place. There are three different schemes. We need to push them on more quickly of course and I am very keen to do that.
Brendan Clarke-Smith (Bassetlaw) (Con)
As a former post office counter clerk myself, I understand at first hand how the Horizon IT debacle had a devastating impact on postmasters, their families and their businesses. Will the Minister assure the House that lessons have been learned from this terrible case?
Kevin Hollinrake
Certainly, we have learned the lesson in this place to heed those warnings more quickly. I am sure the new management of the Post Office have seen what has gone wrong, and we are clearly keen to make sure it never happens again. I do not think we will be able to say we have learned the lessons and this will not happen again until we have received the final results of the inquiry and then decided what action can be taken against the individuals responsible, because that will be the ultimate deterrent in stopping these things happening again.