Post Offices: ICT

(asked on 21st February 2022) - View Source

Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, if his Department will make an assessment of the potential merits of establishing an independent ombudsman to review compensation requests made by victims of the Post Office Horizon scandal that have been rejected.


Answered by
Paul Scully Portrait
Paul Scully
This question was answered on 24th February 2022

When establishing the Historical Shortfall Scheme, the Post Office engaged with the claimants in the settled litigation, to inform the design of the scheme, and the scheme already includes an independent advisory panel with appropriately qualified individuals to make recommendations on compensation. The Panel is completely independent of both Post Office and of Government. The Scheme received around 2,500 claims, of which over 2,300 were eligible applications and Post Office is working to make offers on the overwhelming majority of applications, (95%), by the end of 2022.

Regarding overturned historical convictions, POL is committed to paying the reasonable legal costs of the claimants’ representatives to ensure that they are properly supported to put forward their best possible case for compensation.

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