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A committee of MPs has called for the government to be fined if it fails to provide redress quickly enough to victims of the Horizon software scandal, as its report said the Post Office has spent at least £136m on legal fees.
New legally enforceable time limits for each stage of claim processing should be introduced, a report from the Business and Trade Committee (BTC) has said.
If a claim by a victim of the Post Office Horizon scandal does not move in line with the time limits they should receive the financial penalties paid by the government.
More than 700 sub-postmasters across the UK were wrongfully prosecuted by the Post Office for theft and false accounting using the Horizon software made by Fujitsu which incorrectly generated shortfalls in branches.
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Many more incurred large debts, lost homes, experienced relationship breakdown, became unwell in an effort to repay the imagined shortfalls and some took their own lives.
Four schemes have been launched as the state and the Post Office attempt to redress the wrongs.
Making redress less punishing
But the process of seeking compensation is “akin to a second trial for victims”, the committee chair Liam Byrne said.
It is “imperative” applicants receive upfront legal advice paid for by scheme operators rather than applicants, the committee’s report said, as evidence given by claimants’ solicitors said when they get legal advice, their financial redress offers double.
Applications place an “excessive burden” on claimants to “grapple complex legal concepts” on the amount of redress they’re owed and requests for information about the losses Horizon caused, despite no longer having access to Horizon data.
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