Sir Keir Starmer has responded to a letter from Sir Alan Bates calling for faster compensation payments to postmasters affected by the Post Office scandal, the Prime Minister’s spokesman said.
Sir Alan has written to the Prime Minister twice in the past month, urging him to ensure victims receive full financial compensation by March next year.
The former deputy postmaster had earlier told MPs he was still awaiting a reply, before the Prime Minister’s spokesman later on Tuesday said one had been received.
Last week, the government announced that it would set aside £1.8 billion for those affected by the Horizon IT scandal, in addition to the various compensation schemes already announced.
Between 1999 and 2015, failures in Horizon IT accounting systems left branch accounts missing funds and hundreds of deputy postmasters were wrongfully prosecuted.
Earlier this year, an ITV drama brought the scandal back into the spotlight. Sir Alan leads the Deputy Postmasters Alliance for Justice and gave evidence to a parliamentary committee on Tuesday.
The hearing is considering fast and fair compensation for victims of the Post Office scandal, and a key point previously raised by Sir Alan is the need for the government to set a deadline for the payment of compensation.
He told MPs he had written to the Prime Minister twice in the past month saying it “needs to be completed by the end of March 2025”.
A No 10 spokesman said the Prime Minister had responded to Sir Alan earlier on Tuesday, adding that the Government was committed to providing victims with speedy redress but was wary of setting “arbitrary deadlines” as this could leave some Claimant missed opportunity.
“We hope to get compensation as soon as possible,” he said. “What we don’t want to do is set an absolute deadline that will cause some claimants to miss the deadline.
“But every eligible postmaster should receive substantial compensation by the end of March.”
Activists criticized the time it took for those affected to receive compensation. Many deputy postmasters were wrongfully sent to prison for false accounting and theft, and several were financially bankrupt. Some people die while waiting for justice.
The Prime Minister’s spokesman said that as of October 31, around £438 million had been paid out to more than 3,100 claimants across four compensation schemes.
At the committee, attorneys were asked about their experiences with the Horizon Shortage Compensation Program, which is overseen by the Post Office.
The compensation scheme is available to deputy postmasters who have not been convicted of a crime or are the subject of a Group Litigation Order (GLO) court action, but who believe they have suffered a shortfall as a result of Horizon.
David Enright, whose law firm represents hundreds of Post Office victims, said there was initially no funding for legal advice and claimants were given a “DIY questionnaire”.
Then, six to nine months later, he said there is a request for more information, which often involves 50-150 further questions that can only be answered by someone such as a forensic accountant.
“The system is designed to wear people down,” he told MPs.
Another attorney said some of his deputy postmaster clients were asked to provide proof of claimed losses from 20 years ago but were unable to do so because the evidence had previously been seized by the post office and not returned.
GLO plan It was against 555 former postmasters who won a class-action lawsuit but received relatively little compensation after paying legal fees. The program is funded and administered by the government.
