Home / Crime and Justice / Post Office Justice Delayed: Victims Still Wait
Post Office Justice Delayed: Victims Still Wait
13 Mar
Summary
- Thousands of victims await compensation, facing delays and low offers.
- Parliamentary committee finds "serious structural failings" in redress schemes.
- Fujitsu has not contributed to the compensation bill despite knowing of faults.
A damning report by the business and trade committee has revealed that the Post Office Horizon scandal redress schemes suffer from "serious structural failings." Thousands of victims are still awaiting rightful compensation, encountering significant delays, insufficient offers, and administrative processes that further distress them.
The report highlights that the Horizon shortfall scheme, the largest, has routinely seen initial redress offers overturned and increased on appeal. Committee chair Liam Byrne stated that justice has been too slow for hundreds of post office operators, with many waiting years for recognition and owed compensation.
Across all schemes, over 11,500 claimants have received a collective £1.48 billion. However, Fujitsu, the developer of the faulty Horizon software, has not yet contributed any funds towards the nearly £2 billion redress bill, despite continuing to secure public contracts. Byrne criticized this situation, emphasizing the wrongfulness of taxpayers covering Fujitsu's liabilities while the company profits.
Fujitsu has acknowledged a "moral obligation" to pay compensation and admitted knowledge of the system's faults since the 1990s, but no interim payments have been made. There is also evidence suggesting potential unsafe convictions linked to earlier Post Office accounting systems, indicating a possibility of further systemic issues.
