MPs say Post Office should not oversee Horizon compensation schemes
Share:
Influential Commons committee calls for government to take action to prevent justice being further delayed. The Post Office needs to be removed from running redress schemes for victims of the Horizon scandal to prevent justice from being further delayed, an influential parliamentary committee has said.
In a report published on Wednesday, one year to the day since the ITV drama Mr Bates vs the Post Office brought the scandal to widespread public attention, the Commons business and trade committee said compensation for victims was still not being paid quickly enough and that the government should face financial penalties if the process did not speed up.
It added that state-owned Post Office Ltd had spent £136m on legal fees relating to the four Horizon redress schemes, including £82m to just one firm, Herbert Smith Freehills, for legal advice on the two compensation schemes administered by the Post Office. The overall legal bill was equivalent to 27% of redress paid to date, the report said.
The Labour MP Liam Byrne, who chairs the committee, said: “Years on from the biggest miscarriage of justice in British legal history, thousands of Post Office Horizon victims still don’t have the redress to which they’re entitled for the shatter and ruin of their lives.
“Ours is a nation that believes in fair play and the rule of law. Yet victims told us that seeking the redress to which they’re entitled is akin to a second trial. Payments are so slow that people are dying before they get justice. But the lawyers are walking away with millions. This is quite simply, wrong, wrong, wrong.”.
