Post Office: Wronged victims to be exonerated under fresh law

Wrongfully convicted sub-postmasters are set to be exonerated via a fresh law aimed at clearing the names of the Post Office Horizon IT scandal victims, ministers announced.

Fresh legislation to act as a blanket quashing of illegitimate prosecutions brought about by faulty accounting will be introduced to the House of Commons by the government today.

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said the proposed law, titled the Post Office (Horizon System) Offences Bill, “marks an important step forward in finally clearing their names”. 

He added: “We owe it to the victims of this scandal who have had their lives and livelihoods callously torn apart, to deliver the justice they’ve fought so long and hard for, and to ensure nothing like this ever happens again.” 

Under the proposals, sub-postmasters and mistresses’ convictions will be automatically quashed if they were prosecuted by the Post Office or the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) for relevant offences such as fraud connected to Post Office work between 1996 and 2018. 

It will apply to those who were sub-postmasters, employees, officers, family members or direct Post Office employees where the Horizon system was used, and can also apply to convictions for theft or false accounting.

Those affected will receive an interim payment with the option of an immediate fixed and final offer of £600,000 in a bid to speed up the process of justice and redress.

While ministers have also confirmed for those who suffered due to Horizon failures but were not convicted or part of legal action, a £75,000 fixed sum payment will be made available.

Those who have already settled for less money will have their redress topped up to this level bringing them in line with the members of the Group Litigation Order group of postmasters. 

And those who don’t choose these routes will be assessed via the standard process, for which the government said there is no limit to compensation.

The Department for Business and Trade (DBT) will be responsible for the redress scheme which will make payments to those who have their convictions quashed under the new law.

Postal affairs minister Kevin Hollinrake said: “Postmasters have been fighting for justice for years, and I hope today’s legislation is the light at the end of the tunnel they have waited for. 

“It is only right that postmasters have access to swift and fair compensation.”

And business secretary Kemi Badenoch added: “It is absolutely right that we sweep away the convictions wrongly given to postmasters on the basis of bad evidence, and it is a disgrace that they were ever pursued by the Post Office.”

“We won’t rest until every victim receives the compensation they are entitled to.”

Justice secretary Alex Chalk called it a “watershed moment” and said automatic quashing of convictions was due to “exceptional circumstances which require an exceptional response”.

But Law Society president Nick Emmerson stressed while the government had “set out some reasonable criteria… as always, the devil will be in the detail of such a complex proposal”.

He added: “It cannot be treated as a precedent or justify further government intervention in the independence of our justice system.”

Across the three Post Office compensation schemes, as of March 1, 2024, approximately £179m has been paid to over 2,800 claimants.