Latest news with #HorizonCompensationAdvisoryBoard
Yahoo
27-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Alan Bates's 'kangaroo court' claims denied
Compensation for sub-postmasters is not being decided by a "kangaroo court", the body overseeing the payouts has said, pushing back against allegations made by Sir Alan Bates. Sir Alan, who led the campaign for justice, said he had been made a "take it or leave it" offer that was less than half the amount he was claiming. The "goal posts" had moved and claims had been "knocked back", he said, in ways he saw as unfair to sub-postmasters, many of whom have been waiting years for redress. However, the Horizon Compensation Advisory Board has rejected his criticism, saying it was following a process agreed by Sir Alan, designed to resolve the outstanding cases. Writing in the Sunday Times, Sir Alan had suggested the process was not following established standards, describing it as a "quasi-kangaroo court". The board, made up of parliamentarians and academics, issued a statement on Tuesday saying: "We do not agree [with the criticisms]." It said Sir Alan had been "closely involved" in setting up the process for deciding compensation, which included a final assessment from a "highly respected" judge. "That was what happened in Sir Alan's case," the board said. "It is only a 'take it or leave it' decision in the sense that at some stage the matter has to come to an end and someone has to decide, in order to bring fair closure to so many who have been harmed." Between 1999 and 2015, more than 900 sub-postmasters were wrongly prosecuted after the faulty Horizon IT system indicated shortfalls in Post Office branch accounts. Sir Alan led a group of 555 sub-postmasters who took part in the landmark group legal action against the Post Office. Their fight for justice was brought to wider public attention last year by an ITV drama about the scandal, Mr Bates vs The Post Office. The government went on to set up a specific compensation fund to ensure these sub-postmasters received extra money to reflect the gravity of their situations, but progress has been described as slow and many are still waiting for a payout. Under the Group Litigation Order (GLO) scheme, claimants can either receive £75,000 or seek their own settlement. Sir Alan said the latest offer made to him amounted to 49.2% of his original claim. He said promises that compensation schemes would be "non-legalistic" had turned out to be "worthless". Post Office offer amounts to just half of my claim, says Bates Why were hundreds of Post Office workers wrongly prosecuted? How do the Post Office compensation schemes work?
BBC News
27-05-2025
- Business
- BBC News
Post Office payouts 'not by kangaroo court', says oversight body
Compensation for sub-postmasters is not being decided by a "kangaroo court", the body overseeing the payouts has said, pushing back against allegations made by Sir Alan Bates. Sir Alan, who led the campaign for justice, said he had been made a "take it or leave it" offer that was less than half the amount he was "goal posts" had moved and claims had been "knocked back", he said, in ways he saw as unfair to sub-postmasters, many of whom have been waiting years for the Horizon Compensation Advisory Board has rejected his criticism, saying it was following a process agreed by Sir Alan, designed to resolve the outstanding cases. Writing in the Sunday Times, Sir Alan had suggested the process was not following established standards, describing it as a "quasi-kangaroo court".The board, made up of parliamentarians and academics, issued a statement on Tuesday saying: "We do not agree [with the criticisms]."It said Sir Alan had been "closely involved" in setting up the process for deciding compensation, which included a final assessment from a "highly respected" judge."That was what happened in Sir Alan's case," the board said. "It is only a 'take it or leave it' decision in the sense that at some stage the matter has to come to an end and someone has to decide, in order to bring fair closure to so many who have been harmed." Between 1999 and 2015, more than 900 sub-postmasters were wrongly prosecuted after the faulty Horizon IT system indicated shortfalls in Post Office branch Alan led a group of 555 sub-postmasters who took part in the landmark group legal action against the Post fight for justice was brought to wider public attention last year by an ITV drama about the scandal, Mr Bates vs The Post government went on to set up a specific compensation fund to ensure these sub-postmasters received extra money to reflect the gravity of their situations, but progress has been described as slow and many are still waiting for a the Group Litigation Order (GLO) scheme, claimants can either receive £75,000 or seek their own Alan said the latest offer made to him amounted to 49.2% of his original said promises that compensation schemes would be "non-legalistic" had turned out to be "worthless".
Telegraph
03-05-2025
- Telegraph
Post Office staff who pursued Horizon victims handling compensation claims
Post Office staff who pursued victims in the Horizon IT scandal are still working in departments handling the falsely accused sub-postmasters' compensation claims, it has emerged. Sir Alan Bates, the former sub-postmaster who played a leading role in the campaign for justice for the Horizon victims, describes the staff's involvement as 'without a doubt a conflict of interest'. More than 900 sub-postmasters were wrongfully prosecuted between 1999 and 2015 after Fujitsu's faulty Horizon system incorrectly recorded inaccurate shortfalls on their branch accounts. The final report of the public inquiry into the scandal, which finished hearing evidence in December, is expected to be published later this year, and several schemes have been set up to provide redress to victims. But the Post Office is now under fire for allowing staff whose roles were 'relevant to the scandal' to be involved in compensating victims. None of the staff are accused of wrongdoing. Among them is a former Post Office auditor who visited Baljeet Singh Sandhu's sub-post office in West Boldon, near Sunderland, in 2016. By this point, the Post Office had stopped prosecuting sub-postmasters. However, Mr Sandhu still had his contract terminated on the evidence of the reported shortfalls. Sir Alan told The Telegraph: 'Without doubt this has been a conflict of interest, but it is only one of the many that have occurred, and continue to occur with these financial redress schemes. 'The lack of transparency and parity within these schemes is why there should be some sort of outside body overseeing all of this, or actually putting the structure together and running it.' Post Office 'did not act quickly enough' Sir Alan, whose High Court fight for justice was dramatised in the ITV series Mr Bates vs the Post Office last year, is not the first to criticise the staff being involved in remediation schemes. Giving evidence at the inquiry in November last year, Simon Recaldin, director of the remediation unit, admitted that the Post Office had not acted quickly enough to identify staff with 'past roles' that may lead them to have a 'conflict of interest' when working on redress. A month later, the Post Office assured the Government's independent Horizon Compensation Advisory Board that it had 'agreed a plan to address the issue of remediation unit staff who had previously been employed in roles of interest to the inquiry'. However, minutes from a Horizon Compensation Advisory Board meeting held last month detailed 'concern' over a 'remaining handful of individuals'. The notes read: 'The board has previously expressed concern that some Post Office staff involved in redress had previously had roles relevant to the scandal (although it is not known whether they were actually involved in it). 'The Board welcomed the Post Office's assurance that the great majority of these individuals are no longer involved in redress work. 'It has asked the Post Office for clarification in respect of the remaining handful of individuals and, whilst they recognised the sensitivities involved, expressed concern at the length of time this had taken.' 'Rightly held to account' A Post Office spokesman said: 'We are sincerely sorry for past failings that have caused suffering to postmasters and are focused, alongside Government, on paying redress as quickly as possible so that people can move forward with their lives. 'The Horizon Compensation Advisory Board are rightly holding us to account in ensuring that no individuals currently working on redress matters had any previous role that could be of interest to the Horizon IT Inquiry. 'As the advisory board's minutes note, the vast majority of individuals flagged as potentially having a previous role that could cause a conflict have been redeployed or have left the business. We will continue to keep the board updated on this matter.'
