A substantial proportion of victims of the Post Office Horizon IT scandal risk missing out on the compensation they are due, according to MPs and campaigners, who suggest the true number deserving redress may be significantly higher than estimated.
An estimated 700 post office workers in England and Wales were prosecuted on the basis of evidence from the faulty digital accounting system. Despite efforts by the Post Office and, separately, the Criminal Cases Review Commission, there are still about 250 individuals – more than a third – who have yet to respond to contact.
In Scotland, where cases were prosecuted by the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service, the state prosecutor, 73 potential victims have been contacted by the Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission. Only 19 have so far come forward seeking review of their conviction. The Post Office pursued the vast majority of cases in England and Wales.
Although legislation promised by Rishi Sunak will automatically exonerate all victims and entitle them to an automatic £600,000, there is still uncertainty about how that compensation can be paid if individuals have not come forward with their current details.
Further, if people believe that sum does not fully compensate them for what they have lost, they have to come forward in order to engage with the full process and achieve the redress they think they deserve.
Those working with Horizon victims say there are obvious reasons why people have not come forward. “You have a significant number who have not come forward, either because they were so traumatised they want nothing to do with it or because they still don’t realise they are entitled,” said the Labour MP Kevan Jones, a member of the Horizon compensation advisory board who has long campaigned on the scandal. “Sadly, a number have died by now, and their estates don’t realise they may have a claim.”
The Scottish National party’s Marion Fellows, who took up the cause of Horizon victims early on, said: “I suspect that the true number of people who have not come forward is even higher than estimated and it is shocking that they may not receive the compensation they deserve.
“So many people have signed non-disclosure agreements with the Post Office [standard if retiring or stepping down] and are worried they will be pursued. I believe this is acting on a sizeable chunk of those who have not come forward.”
Jones and Fellows add another category of as yet uncompensated Horizon victims: those who topped up the tills with their own money to make up the unexplained weekly shortfall, sometimes amounting to thousands of pounds, but kept no record and do not believe they will be compensated if they cannot evidence their loss.
Calum Greenhow, the chief executive of the National Federation of SubPostmasters and a post office operator for 22 years in the village of West Linton, south of Edinburgh, said the government and legal establishment needed to take responsibility for why so many people were unwilling to engage with the Post Office again. “Given the breakdown of trust, I would like to see an independent body handling the redress for people across the UK,” he said.
While the UK government announced last month it would bring forward the promised legislation by the summer recess, this will only apply to England and Wales, despite calls from the Scottish government to extend it north of the border. Westminster’s cross-party business and trade committee recently heard that just 4% of those with wrongful convictions had received compensation for their ordeal.
Jones said the advisory board would write to MPs to encourage them to publicisethe options for redress locally. “When you put all those groups together you have a substantial proportion of victims who have not come forward,” he said.
