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.