The Post Office will no longer provide compensation to victims of a Horizon software flaw, a minister has said.
Speaking in the House of Commons on Wednesday afternoon, Post Office Minister Kevin Hollinrake accepted recommend Responsibility for remediation shall not rest with the organization.
Instead, the Ministry of Commerce and Trade and independent individuals will be responsible for running the government, he said.
Horizon’s flawed system led to hundreds of wrongful convictions for fraud, theft and faulty accounting.
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Mr Hollinluck said: “I can announce today that it will be the Department of Business and Trade, not the Post Office, that will be responsible for providing remedies relating to the overturning of these convictions.
“The final decision on compensation will be made by an independent panel or individual.”
A total of 102 falsely accused deputy postmasters were overturned, but the vast majority of the 700 convicted deputy postmasters were not.
legislation will Overturned hundreds of convictions It has been announced – Mr Hollinlake has accepted – that some genuine convictions will be quashed in the process.
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“Summer payment compensation”
back explosive hearing The Business and Trade Committee made a series of recommendations to Post Office officials and victims, one of which was that the Post Office should not be involved in managing redress schemes.
Another suggestion – that of setting a legally binding time limit for redress – was rejected by Mr Hollinluck on Wednesday.
Imposing financial penalties for conduct within a specific time period would slow down the compensation process, not speed it up, Hollingrek said.
“We believe the system they propose would have the opposite effect, meaning penalties could be imposed on forensic accountants or others who help postmasters prepare claims,” he said.
“Doing so may cause some of them to withdraw from the work, slowing down the implementation of remedial measures.
He added: “Furthermore, we do not want us to push postmasters to make significant decisions about their claims and the offers received, which may mean some have lost all chance of redress.”
The Horizon Affair resulted in the subpostmasters being discredited on charges of theft and false accounting, and many went bankrupt or imprisoned.
Two other compensation plans, the Horizon Shortage Scheme (HSS) and the Group Litigation Order (GLO), are not affected by Wednesday’s announcement.
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