Post Office Ltd: Horizon

Kevin Hollinrake Excerpts

Wednesday 8th November 2023 Written Statements

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Business and Trade (Kevin Hollinrake)]

Post Office Ltd is compensating postmasters for the suffering they have experienced due to the Horizon IT scandal, which arose following the installation of the Horizon software in the late 1990s.

In parallel with this, Post Office Ltd has continued to review its operational processes and policies to ensure that, where any further issues are identified, it takes steps to investigate and address these. Through this work, Post Office has found previous operational issues such as processes and/or policies regarding certain services that impacted postmasters financially. As a result, Post Office is establishing a compensation scheme to provide redress to postmasters affected by these issues. This is separate to its work compensating postmasters for Horizon shortfalls and for those with overturned convictions.

The Government are supportive of Post Office’s programme of reform, putting right the wrongs of the past, and its aim to help rebuild trust with its postmasters. The Government therefore intend to support Post Office’s process review scheme with funding to cover the cost of compensation to postmasters affected by the issues identified.

The compensation will be exempt from income tax, national insurance contributions, capital gains tax and corporation tax.

Post Office will communicate with current and former postmasters and publish details on its website in due course, to outline the scope of the review. The Department for Business and Trade will provide oversight to ensure that this compensation is delivered quickly and effectively to affected postmasters.

This funding is subject to compliance with subsidy control requirements, including referral to the Subsidy Advice Unit (part of the Competition and Markets Authority) under the Subsidy Control Act 2022.

[HCWS8]