As I am sure you will appreciate, a number of my constituents have raised this issue with me so in the interests of transparency and completeness, I thought it best to provide you with my overall views on this most serious and complex issue.
Like many of my Parliamentary colleagues across the House, I am appalled by the treatment of the sub-postmasters who were accused of theft based on flawed evidence from the Horizon IT system. Victims’ accounts of the impact of these prosecutions are harrowing: some served prison sentences; many had their livelihoods and life savings decimated; marriages broke down; four committed suicide; others passed away before being able to clear their names; and many were ostracised by their local communities and as a result failed to find alternative work.
While we cannot undo the damage that has been done, we must establish what went wrong. I am aware that nobody at either the Post Office or Fujitsu has been held directly accountable. In light of the rulings, however, the Government converted a public inquiry into the affair to a statutory footing which allows its Chair, Sir Wyn Williams, the necessary powers and time to conduct an in-depth analysis of the decision-making processes that led to the scandal. I understand that Sir Wyn has published his interim report, and my ministerial colleagues will provide a formal response shortly. You can read Sir Wyn’s interim report here: www.postofficehorizoninquiry.org.uk/interim-report-compensation-17-july…
The Post Office (Horizon System) Compensation Bill will ensure that those who exposed the scandal do not miss out on compensation because of an arbitrary deadline. The Government is determined to make compensation claims as soon as possible, and by the current deadline of August 2024. Time needs to be taken to assess more complex claims, so postmasters receive full and fair compensation and are not unduly rushed into making a decision on their claims.
To date, more than £148 million has been paid to 2,700 victims across all compensation schemes, 93 convictions have been overturned and of those, 30 have agreed full and final settlements. Just over £30 million has been paid out in compensation to those with overturned convictions, including interim payments.
In addition, the 2,417 postmasters who claimed through the original Horizon shortfall scheme have all received offers of compensation. Around 85 percent have accepted those offers, worth over £107 million. In total, over £91 million has been paid out through the scheme, with the Post Office now dealing with late applications and with cases where initial offers were not accepted.
Turning to the issue of the CBE for Paula Vennells, the former Chief Executive of the Post Office, we in the UK have a strong sense of fairness and justice and the whole Horizon scandal needs to be addressed once and for all. People were let down by the Post Office management in a terrible way which led to an appalling injustice. As such, I do not think it is right that someone at the very centre of this scandal should retain an honour in these circumstances and I had called for it to be forfeited. I am pleased that Ms. Vennells has chosen to relinquish her honour as this is the right thing to do and can allow the inquiry to focus ensuring that further justice is done.
The harm that these prosecutions have wreaked on the affected families over the past 20 years is irreparable. Lessons should and will be learnt to ensure that an injustice of this magnitude never happens again.
I hope that this provides you with reassurance that the Government is taking the necessary steps to remedy this situation as quickly as possible. In the meantime, thank you for writing to me about this matter.