Horizon redress scheme ‘not a success’ until all victims get full and fair offer

A leading Post Office Horizon scandal campaigner has said the UK Government cannot label its soon-to-close compensation scheme a success as some victims are still awaiting “full and fair redress”.

Christopher Head, who became the youngest subpostmaster at the age of 18 when he took over the West Bolden branch near Sunderland in 2006, said the group litigation order (GLO) scheme could have “wrapped up a year ago” if the Department for Business and Trade (DBT) had listened to feedback from claimants.

The GLO scheme was set up following the high-profile legal action launched by Sir Alan Bates and 554 others against the Post Office in the High Court between 2017 and 2019.

A total of 492 subpostmasters have been entitled to apply for redress under the scheme, with the remaining 63 told to apply through a different process because of their wrongful criminal convictions.

The Horizon accounting system, run by Japanese firm Fujitsu, made it look like money was missing from subpostmasters’ branch accounts.

It is at the centre of the long-running Post Office scandal, which saw around 1,000 people wrongly prosecuted and convicted throughout the UK between 1999 and 2015.

On Tuesday, DBT said the GLO scheme would close to new applicants on July 31, with a view to concluding on December 31 following “successful delivery”.

Following the announcement, Mr Head told the Press Association: “That’s the department saying it’s been successful, and that to me comes back to a fundamental problem we’ve had with Post Office and DBT all the time, which is that they are marking their own homework.

“They’re going to say ‘we’ve received this many claims and we’ve paid them so that means it’s been successful’, but what I call successful is… has the scheme successfully paid full and fair redress to those people?

“The department class full and fair redress being paid when someone accepts an offer – but there might be various reasons why someone might accept an offer.

“So I don’t see why it should be DBT that should say that it has been successful, it should be the claimants.

“I would honestly like every single person to be asked the question ‘do you believe you have received redress that is full and fair?’ and just place it in a yes and no table – that will tell you whether the scheme has been successful.

“In my view, in some cases it has been successful because we have seen deliveries of redress that are above what people have claimed, but there are other people I know who have said ‘I’ve had enough, I’ve literally had enough’, and therefore the scheme might have been completed, rather than successful.

“But there is still a number of people who have not received what the department set out to achieve, which is full and fair redress.”

Mr Head was falsely accused of stealing more than £80,000 from his branch before the criminal case against him was dropped, at which point he was pursued by the Post Office through the civil courts.

Addressing the GLO scheme, he told PA: “My view of it is that the scheme as a whole, if you want to look at it from the vast majority of cases, is doing what it was designed to do – problem is, it’s taken a hell of a long time to get the scheme in the position that it is now.”

Mr Head said his claim took the longest to be settled, spanning a total of 744 days after he felt forced to “sit on” his claim to avoid potentially losing money by taking his case to an appeal.

He could eventually proceed with his claim after the scheme was changed to incorporate a “best offer” policy, in case an independent panel said their claim was worth less than what DBT had offered.

Mr Head said he was representing vulnerable people in “seriously ill health” who are part of the GLO scheme, who have not been able to communicate with their own lawyers because they do not “understand the legalities”, or are in the “right frame of mind”.

He said DBT had taken too long to get the scheme where it is today, saying: “You’re providing them feedback and saying ‘these problems are happening’, and the department’s stance in the most part that I could see, especially in the very first 12-18 months of the scheme operating… they just buried their heads in the sand.

“There was always an excuse about why it couldn’t be done.

“If the department had actually taken on the feedback and actually listened to the claimants and their lawyers about what things could have been done to improve or implement it, we could have had this scheme wrapped up a year ago.

“The fact that they dug their heels in… I think the gripe is the delay doing it and the department’s refusal to listen to claimants and their lawyers was the first part – and there are still people who still believe they haven’t received the full and fair redress they are entitled to.

“But it’s very hard to say whether that’s the department’s fault or something wrong with the claim.”

DBT said as of March 31, 90% of GLO scheme claimants had received final redress, with £223 million paid out to victims.

Post Office Minister Blair McDougall said: “The postmasters in the GLO group were the first to lead the charge for justice, and they deserve to see this chapter closed with the full and fair redress they are owed.

“Setting these deadlines is about making sure that happens.

“We are 90% of the way there, and I am determined that the remaining claims are resolved quickly and fairly, with proper support for anyone who needs it.”

DBT said more than £1.5 billion had been paid out to Horizon victims since the summer of 2024.