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Daily Mirror
28 minutes ago
- Daily Mirror
DWP orders probe into postmaster prosecutions amid calls to 'come clean'
The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) has ordered an 'independent assurance review' into prosecutions of Post Office staff for alleged welfare offences during the Horizon IT scandal Dozens of prosecutions of subpostmasters by the Department for Work and Pensions ( DWP) are set to be looked at by a new probe. Around 100 people were taken to court by the Government department between 2001 and 2006 while the Horizon IT scandal unfolded, and 61 were convicted. The DWP now faces calls to "come clean" about its actions. They were prosecuted over allegations of welfare-related fraud - which many claim they did to settle balances due to the faulty computer system. They say they have yet to be properly exonerated. The DWP has confirmed it will be commissioning an "independent assurance review" to look into its handling of the prosecutions. It comes after Gordon Brown blasts the return of 'poverty of 60 years ago' as he makes one big demand. READ MORE: Fury as small boat detentions begin amid threat of human rights legal challenges Hundreds of postmasters and staff were prosecuted and lost their savings and livelihood after dodgy software made it look like money was missing from their branches. Convictions of more than 700 who were wrongly pursued by the Post Office were torn up last January. At least 13 are believed to have taken their own lives, a public inquiry found. Public anger grew after ITV drama Mr Bates vs The Post Office screened last year, highlighting the harrowing ordeals scandal victims endured. Questions remain over prosecutions by the DWP - but it insists there is "no evidence" the Horizon system, made by Fujitsu, was used to secure convictions. It emerged last year that the DWP had taken part in joint investigations alongside the Post Office, piling pressure on the department to look again at its actions. Labour peer Lord Sikka said: "The DWP has never come clean about its prosecution of postmasters. After nearly 30 years the slow progress of the DWP investigations, lack of urgency and transparency is very disappointing. No postmaster should be excluded from the review." A DWP spokesman said: 'We have committed to commissioning an independent assurance review where Post Office members of staff were prosecuted by the Department for welfare-related fraud. 'These cases involved complex investigations and were backed by evidence including filmed surveillance, stolen benefit books and witness statements – to date, no documentation has been identified showing that Horizon data was essential to these prosecutions.' The new review will look at how DWP investigators gathered an reviewed evidence during the Horizon scandal. It will also assess the thoroughness and adequacy of efforts to obtain case documents. But it will not review or comment on individual cases prosecuted by the DWP. Many cases are believed to centre around stolen pension dockets. One victim, referred to as Holly, told The Sunday Times she was convicted of theft and ended up serving four months behind bars. "Twenty years later years later, I have moved on with my life to the best I can but the impact it has had on me, and my family, has been something else," she said. Holly told the newspaper she thinks she was blamed for pensions dockets that had been cashed. Subpostmaster Roger Allen, from Norwich, was convicted in 2004 of stealing pension payments by the DWP. He was jailed for six months. The family of Mr Allen, who died last March, are determined he will still be exonerated. Daughter Keren Simpson said: "He couldn't even talk about it, it was so difficult for him. I wanted him to know that I wouldn't give up. And I won't." In a long-awaited document last month(JULY) Sir Wyn Williams, who chairs the Horizon IT Inquiry, said Post Office chiefs should have known the faulty software could produce false data. He estimated 10,000 people may be eligible for compensation - saying postmasters and their families should be regarded as "victims of wholly unacceptable behaviour" by the Post Office and Fujitsu. The report said at least 13 people are believed to have taken their own lives as a result of the impact of the Horizon scandal, including Martin Griffiths, 59, who deliberately stepped in front of a bus in 2013. And Sir Wyn revealed 59 others had contemplated suicide - including 10 who attempted to do so.
Telegraph
an hour ago
- Telegraph
Ministers ‘lose track' of 150,000 migrants
Ministers have 'lost track' of more than 150,000 migrants who have come to the UK on social care visas, The Telegraph can disclose. The Government has admitted it has no idea how many foreign workers hired to plug gaps in Britain's crisis-hit social care system are still working in the industry. It is not even known if they are still in the UK, as it has emerged there is no official data directly linking visa status with ongoing residence in Britain. Care staff were added to the UK's skilled worker scheme in February 2022, allowing them to come to Britain on a health and care visa if they could secure a job with an employer approved by the Home Office, amid fears the industry would otherwise collapse. Since then, the UK has granted 154,402 visas to migrants providing 'caring personal services' in Britain, allowing them to stay here for up to five years at a time. The annual total peaked at 107,772 in 2023 before falling to 9,539 in 2024, when the Tories barred people on care visas from bringing family members with them to the UK.
Telegraph
an hour ago
- Telegraph
Somalia gripped by fears of militant Islamic uprising
As Fartun Hashi Warsame serves cardamom-spiced tea at her shop, she often overhears worried chatter about the al-Shabaab militants closing in on Mogadishu. If customers notice she is listening, they drop their voices. Speculating about whether al-Shabaab might reach Somalia's capital, or speaking about the government's failings, are dangerous topics, even if they are commonplace. In a city full of secret police, residents never know who might be listening. 'Everybody senses it: the war is raging outside Mogadishu and al-Shabaab keep getting closer,' Mrs Warsame says. 'If al-Shabaab keep taking territory, then it's obvious that the same fate will await Mogadishu. 'Surveillance is everywhere, but sometimes you can't hold back from the obvious. Everybody is aware of the situation and many are concerned.' Al-Shabaab has launched a sweeping offensive, capturing dozens of towns and villages in regions around the Somalian capital since February. The ambitious advance by one of al-Qaeda's most successful affiliates has overturned several years of recent gains made by an internationally recognised federal government, which increasingly finds itself isolated in Mogadishu. An African peace-keeping mission and a sharp escalation in US air strikes under Donald Trump have failed to stop the push. The militia, which is declared a terrorist organisation by the US and the UK, is meanwhile trying to shed its reputation for repression and murderous suicide bombings. Waging a patient 'hearts and minds' campaign in its quickly spreading territory, the group promises Islamic law, justice and order, rather than the corruption of the government. To many international observers, such echoes of of words and conditions in Afghanistan before the Taliban's 2021 victory are concerning. Donors, including the UK, who have poured billions into a faltering nation-building effort are disillusioned and weary. 'It's absolutely similar [to 2021 Afghanistan], and for good reason,' says Ashley Jackson of the Centre on Armed Groups, who has researched both the Taliban and al-Shabaab. 'Both governments are these creations of the global war on terrorism, and similar models of stabilisation were followed in both countries. And this created and sustained predatory, corrupt governments more consumed with self gain than legitimacy or service delivery.' The Taliban and al-Shabaab are 'very structurally, militarily and ideologically similar,' she says, though al-Shabaab allows girls to go to school. As al-Shabaab has this summer stormed across the Hiiraan, Lower Shabelle and Middle Shabelle regions, there has been heavy fighting only 25 miles or so from Mogadishu. Surprisingly, inside the increasingly isolated city, security is better than it has been for years. The indiscriminate al-Shabaab suicide bombings that used to kill hundreds at a time have largely stopped. Shrapnel marks and bullet holes have been plastered over. High-rise blocks, hotels and restaurants have sprung up. The government angrily rejects speculation that the city is threatened, worried it will scare off donors and international backers who live in fortified compounds near the airport. Ismail Osman, former deputy director of Somalia's national intelligence and security agency, said last week: 'Mogadishu is not falling. Mogadishu is standing. 'In fact, it is standing taller every year, supported by a population that is tired of war, energised by opportunity, and determined to never again allow terror or foreign indifference to define its future.' Yet the prospect is widely discussed, including by the businessmen who have poured money into the capital. 'I'm thinking about leaving,' says one businessman who declines to give his name. He returned from Canada to his homeland, but is now worried everything he has invested in shops and cafés will be lost if fighting reaches the city. 'I returned here a decade ago, but even though then the city was plagued by rampant bombings and assassinations, I didn't have as much fear as I do today. 'No one knows what will happen next, that's why everyone is fearful,' he says. 'Most people in Mogadishu know that many towns and districts have fallen and there is fighting taking place near Afgoye [20 miles from Mogadishu]. 'One of my friends told me to spend the summer with him in Nairobi to see how things go, but I have put too much into this city. I won't leave now, but I'll make my decision soon.' Al-Shabaab, meaning The Youth in Arabic, emerged as the radical wing of Somalia's now-defunct Union of Islamic Courts, which controlled Mogadishu in 2006, before being forced out by Ethiopian forces. The group vows to implement Islamic law and condemns democracy as a Western transplant. In 2012 the leadership swore allegiance to al-Qaeda. The group became notorious for attacks inside Somalia and in neighbouring Kenya, where in 2013, its gunmen stormed the Westgate shopping mall in Nairobi, killing at least 67 people. Several foreign jihadists are thought to have joined, including Samantha Lewthwaite, the British woman married to one of the 7/7 suicide bombers, and now known as the White Widow. Al-Shabaab's resurgence would have seemed unlikely only two years ago. From mid-2022 a clan-based militia called the Macawisley pushed the group out of much of central Somalia with the backing of the army. Yet those gains have been swept away after government successes later soured. Promises of development in the liberated areas went unfulfilled and the clan militia quickly started to prey on the population. Al-Shabaab appeared to have been biding its time and has been able to retake much of the territory easily, often facing little local resistance. Sympathisers with the group are not difficult to find, even with its blood-soaked record. 'Al-Shabaab are feared but the government is hated. It's tough,' explains Abdirahman Nur Hassan, a rickshaw driver in the capital. Army morale is low The group has tried to project a softer face and relaxed some of the strictures in its territory, allowing people to use the internet and scaling back judicial executions and amputations. Prisoners of war are now being freed, rather than killed. Last month the offensive took the strategic towns of Moqokori and Maxaas. Overall, the Somali army has struggled to mount a cohesive counter-offensive, though this week it said it had retaken Bariire, a town south-west of the capital The new 10-000 strong African Union peacekeeping mission (AUSSOM) of Ugandans, Ethiopians and Kenyans is distracted as it undergoes a transition and reportedly cannot pay its troops. One army deserter said: 'Our morale was gone and with each town that fell one after another, we knew it was a matter of time before we were overrun and killed.' The former soldier, who declined to be named, said: 'The army will seize a town, then Shabaab will seize it and then the army would be back, but then Shabaab takes over once again. It's been going on for years. 'Young soldiers are dying in large numbers and many don't want to keep dying for a lost cause because that's how many feel about the war with al-Shabaab.' Meanwhile, the federal government under Hassan Sheikh Mohamud is consumed by political infighting and appears to be calculating it will not be deserted by the international community. The president has particularly courted Turkey as a protector, granting Turkish Petroleum Corporation (TPAO) exclusive rights to explore and produce offshore oil and gas. Next year's elections may be a more dangerous point for Mogadishu, says Ms Jackson, rather than an imminent al-Shabaab military offensive. The group is more likely to be patiently positioning itself to take advantage of any electoral violence, or disputes between the federal states, that would seriously weaken the central government. She said: 'I don't think Mogadishu is immediately in danger in military terms. 'The fact that the people are even worried about it shows how little faith they have in the Somali government.'
