A fresh review will look at allegations of “coercive behaviour” during a 2010s Post Office modernisation programme, a business minister has said.
Gareth Thomas said “concerns have been raised” with him that the Post Office “may have provided unregulated financial advice” to postmasters at the time.
He made the announcement in the Commons, as he also unveiled plans for an appeals process for Horizon Shortfall Scheme (HSS) claimants who feel their financial settlement they received did not reflect the true extent of their losses and trauma.
Mr Thomas said that between July last year and March 31 this year, more than 3,300 victims of the Horizon IT scandal received compensation for the first time.
Approximately £892 million had been paid to over 6,200 claimants across four Horizon redress schemes by the end of last month.
Mr Thomas told MPs: “Concerns have been raised that Post Office may have acted improperly during the network transformation programme during the 2010s.
“There are claims Post Office and their representatives put undue pressure on postmasters and may have provided unregulated financial advice to encourage them to move onto contracts that were ultimately not in their best interests.
“These allegations must be taken seriously.
“I am therefore commissioning and independent review into the conduct of this programme to establish whether there was any improper or coercive behaviour, and I will update the House on the scope and timing of this review in due course.
“It remains our priority to speed up the delivery of fair compensation to all the victims of the Horizon scandal and to secure and strengthen the Post Office for the future.”
Mr Thomas had earlier unveiled plans for a new HSS appeals programme.
“We are today publishing the guidance and principles for these HSS appeals, and by the end of this month, we will begin to accept applications from eligible postmasters currently in the Post Office’s dispute resolution process,” he told the Commons.
“That document sets out the underlying rules that will govern the assessment of appeals. It also provides information to help postmasters and their legal representatives in making their claims, such as the eligibility criteria.
“We have developed this in consultation with the Horizon Compensation Advisory Board, claimants’ lawyers and representatives from postmaster organisations.
“Later this month, we will begin writing to the legal representatives of potentially eligible postmasters currently in the Post Office’s dispute resolution process, inviting them to transfer their claim into the new HSS appeals scheme.
“Where postmasters do not have legal representatives, we will write to them directly and shortly after this, we will open the scheme to all other eligible postmasters.”
Conservative shadow communities secretary Kevin Hollinrake called in his response for a “named individual overseeing the compensation schemes” for subpostmasters affected by the faulty Horizon software.
He said: “I think one individual overseeing all schemes who’ll put their name to that scheme and their reputation on the line for delivering compensation, because although the fixed-sum awards are working, the full assessment route still has problems.”
