Post Office scandal: MPs call for financial penalty for slow payouts

A radical of MPs says compensation is not being paid rapidly capable for the victims of the Post Office ungraded and is calling for the authorities to look fiscal penalties if the process doesn't velocity up.

The Business and Trade Select Committee said binding timeframes were needed, with immoderate wealth arising from missed deadlines going to the claimants if they weren't met.

The committee besides called for the Post Office to beryllium removed from its relation successful the compensation schemes, and asked for much transparency implicit however overmuch it was paying for lawyers.

The authorities said it was "working tirelessly" to settee claims "at a faster complaint than ever before".

Committee president Liam Byrne MP said: "The responsibility lies with the Post Office, but yet authorities is the shareholder successful the Post Office and acts connected our behalf".

The authorities is already looking astatine the Post Office's relation successful the compensation schemes.

Between 1999 and 2015 hundreds of sub-postmasters were prosecuted and convicted based connected accusation from a faulty accounting system, Horizon, which made it look similar wealth was missing.

Some sub-postmasters wrongfully went to prison, galore were financially ruined, and immoderate person since died.

One of those accused, Seema Misra, was 8 weeks large erstwhile she was wrongfully imprisoned.

Speaking to the BBC aft she was made an OBE successful the King's New Year database for her relation successful campaigning for justice, she said it was an acknowledgement of the "scale of the injustice and scandal".

The ungraded "still hasn't been sorted out", she said, recalling the "really, truly hard time" she had had since her ineligible conflict with the Post Offices started successful 2008, 3 years aft she had bought the Post Office successful West Byfleet successful Surrey.

She served four-and-a-half months successful Bronzefield situation and gave commencement to her 2nd lad wearing an physics tag.

A nationalist enquiry successful to the ungraded heard last submissions successful December, wherever it took grounds from lawyers representing the Post Office, Horizon's creators Fujitsu, and the Department for Business, arsenic good arsenic victims and erstwhile Post Office bosses.

The prime committee's report, which comes a twelvemonth aft an ITV play astir the ungraded catapulted the contented to the public's attention, said the redress schemes were inactive "poorly designed" and payments were inactive "not accelerated enough".

It recovered the exertion process was akin to a 2nd proceedings for the victims, adding that lawyers administering the schemes were making millions whilst the immense bulk of the wealth acceptable speech for redress had inactive to beryllium paid out.

The committee's recommendations see providing upfront ineligible proposal for victims and hard deadlines for administrators to o.k. claims - with fiscal penalties if they instrumentality excessively long.

Only astir £499m of the budgeted £1.8bn has been paid retired truthful far, to much than 3,000 claimants. The committee said that meant 72% of the fund had inactive not paid.

Many of those with the astir analyzable claims person inactive to beryllium afloat settled.

"This is rather simply, wrong, wrong, wrong", Byrne said.

"There are inactive thousands of victims who person not had the redress to which they are entitled.

"This is the biggest miscarriage of justness successful British ineligible history," helium said, adding that determination are "eye-watering ineligible costs which are, frankly, going done the roof."

Talking to the BBC, helium said that "for each £4 that the payer is paying retired successful redress payments, £1 is going to the lawyers".

Byrne added that hard deadlines and fines would assistance the authorities and the Post Office to "get a grip".

A Post Office spokesperson said the steadfast was "focused connected paying redress arsenic swiftly arsenic possible", adding that its spending connected outer instrumentality firms was kept "under changeless review".

"Our seat said astatine the Public Inquiry successful October that redress schemes administered by america should beryllium transferred to the government, and we volition enactment the Department for Business and Trade connected immoderate decisions they whitethorn instrumentality regarding this matter," the spokesperson added.

There are 4 compensation schemes for victims and 2 are overseen by the Post Office.

The government's Post Office curate Gareth Thomas said successful December that the Labour authorities was considering taking implicit work for the schemes from the company.

The Post Office told the prime committee successful December that ineligible fees had made up £136m of the outgo of administering the Post Office-led schemes since 2020, which is astir 27% of the compensation paid out.

Some of the committee's recommendations for betterment were antecedently rejected by the erstwhile Tory government.

Hard deadlines attached to fiscal penalties were dismissed arsenic having "no affirmative effect" connected speeding up claims and "might unjustly penalise solicitors for issues retired of their control", the erstwhile authorities said successful May.

Meanwhile, Hudgell Solicitors, which represents hundreds of erstwhile sub-postmasters, has welcomed the committee's recommendations, saying they would simplify and velocity up the compensation schemes by removing "unnecessary obstacles to justice" which it said it had seen repeated implicit hundreds of cases.