We've already heard this morning that the total bill for various compensation schemes will top £1bn.

"I think the public mood is very much behind the postmasters, rightly," Creswell says, when asked about the idea of taxpayers having to cover these types of costs.

"I think that the question of who contributes to the costs overall - taxpayer or someone else - is very much a live one."

He adds that the idea of Fujitsu, the Japanese company who developed the Horizon software, contributing towards costs of the schemes, "rather than it falling solely onto the taxpayer is a very sensible one".

Fujitsu has apologised to sub-postmasters in the past, and suggested that it will contribute to financial redress.

Image source, UK Parliament

Only a third of victims have submitted claims, Creswell tells the committee.

Chair Liam Byrne asks whether it is a concern that two-thirds have not.

Creswell replies: "Yes, but they're in the process."

Earlier he told MPs, "It's not that we don't know who these people are or where they are."

He says he expects 95% of victims to have submitted claims by the end of the process.

Simon Jack
Business editor

The total bill for compensation to victims of the Post Office scandal will exceed the £1 billion currently set aside according to Carl Creswell - the person handling Post Office compensation claims for the Department of Business.

He expected to receive claims from 95% of the 478 members of the group action headed by Alan Bates and expected the speed of compensation to accelerate once criminal convictions are overturned in a separate compensation programme.

When asked whether he had ever been asked to slow down the compensation payments, he said "absolutely not" and joked with MPs that "you would have thought someone would have mentioned it to me" - as he is the person who signs off the payments.

His comments are a reference to a claim by the recently sacked Post Office chairman Henry Staunton that he was told by a senior civil servant to stall payments ahead of the next election.

This claim was rejected by the civil servant Sarah Munby and the Business Secretary Kemi Badenoch. The Post Office chief executive Nick Read said he had personally never been asked to go slow - although he was copied into a memo written by Henry Staunton at the time of the alleged conversation.

Answering a question about compensation, Carl Creswell, Director of Business Resilience at the Department of Business and Trade, says that as of the end of last week they have received 106 full claims and made 104 offers - 80 of those have been accepted, and 78 paid.

"That changes day-to-day and it's moving quite rapidly," he notes.

Creswell adds that in addition to the 106 full claims, they have also received 41 partial claims.

Sean Seddon
Journalist

Image source, Getty Images

The government has announced plans to overturn the convictions of more than 900 people linked to the Post Office scandal. More than 4,000 people in total have been told they are eligible for compensation.

But there are a number of different compensation schemes, affecting different groups of people who had different experiences of the scandal.

The main one being discussed today is the Group Litigation Order, or GLO scheme, which involves the "original" 555 sub-postmasters and sub-postmistresses, led by Alan Bates in a landmark court case against the Post Office.

The scheme was set up to ensure they received additional money to reflect the gravity of the situations they faced.

Next week, MPs will hear from legal representatives from the Department for Business who are administering it - as well as lawyers for claimants of this and all other schemes, according to the Commons.

• You can read more on the compensation schemes available here

Image source, Parliament TV

We're now underway in the House of Commons with the first of today's speakers appearing before MPs.

Up first and speaking about the Group Litigation Order (GLO) scheme are a number of legal representatives

• Carl Creswell, Director of Business Resilience, Department of Business and Trade
• Mark Chesher, Partner, Addleshaw Goodard
• Rob Francis, Partner, Dentons Solicitors
• Sir Ross Cranston, Independent Reviewer, GLO Scheme

They're giving evidence to the Business and Trade Committee, which is chaired by Labour MP Liam Byrne.

The first batch of witnesses will be followed later today by former postmasters, victims' lawyers, and current and former Post Office bosses.

Oliver Smith
Reporting from Portcullis House

Image source, Getty Images

We have seen the arrival of some former sub-postmasters and sub-postmistresses here in Westminster as well.

In this picture, you can see Jo Hamilton, who was portrayed in the ITV drama by Monica Dolan. In the series, she is seen surrounded by paperwork and distraught by losses doubling in front of her very eyes in one very memorable scene.

You can also see Tony Downey on the right of the above photo, the former Hawkshead sub-postmaster who fled to Spain after he lost his livelihood because of the Horizon scandal.

You can read more about Tony's story and his fight for redress here.

Former sub-postmistress Sarah Burgess-Boyd, from Newcastle, spoke to the BBC's Today programme ahead of the MPs' committee today.

She lost her life savings when she paid a shortfall the Post Office wrongly told her that she owed.

She was suspended in 2009, accused of theft, and later acquitted in 2011. But, in the process she says she lost nearly £500,000.

Asked how much she’d like to get back from the Post Office, she told the programme: “I would like full financial redress.

"I just want to be put back into a position where I would be now if they hadn’t done what they did. I think they call it ‘but-for’.

“I just want to be put back in a position where I’m not penniless and that I can just retire with a little bit of dignity, that’s all.”

She added: “Since my suspension, it will be 15 years this year and it’s enough, it’s enough. It is time for it to end.”

She said today she would like to hear MPs asking: “When are you going to put things right? When are you going to do the right thing?"

Image source, PA

Earlier this year, on 10 January, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak announced the government would bring in a new law to clear the names of all the sub-postmasters and mistresses in England and Wales who were wrongfully convicted because of the faulty Horizon computer system – you can watch that moment here.

According to the Department for Business and Trade, there have been 983 UK-wide convictions, with 700 being Post Office prosecutions and 283 prosecutions brought by other groups, including a small number by the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS), since the Horizon system was installed in 1999.

So far just 93 have had their convictions overturned - although this will change with the new law.

Some sub-postmasters caught up in the scandal have died or taken their own lives in the intervening years. According to a recent report in the Times, external, 251 postmasters wrongly accused of stealing money died before compensation became available.

The Post Office prosecutions include some in Scotland and Northern Ireland, where separate action will have to be taken to clear the names of those affected.

Scotland’s First Minister Humza Yousaf said he was also keen to work with UK ministers on the issue.

Oliver Smith
Reporting from Portcullis House

Image source, Reuters

Henry Staunton, who was sacked from his position of Post Office Chairman by the Business Secretary Kemi Badenoch, has arrived very early for his appearance in front of the Business Committee.

Staunton was sacked in January and subsequently said he had been told to stall compensation payments to postmasters – a claim the government has strongly denied.

Asked by waiting reporters and TV cameras outside Portcullis House in Westminster, where he’s due to face MPs at 13:00 GMT, Staunton was asked if he was looking forward to setting out his side of the story.

“I am,” he replied.

Image source, EPA

• 1999: The Horizon accounting system is rolled out in Post Offices across the UK
• 2000: The first issue with the system is reported by Alan Bates, sub-postmaster of a branch in north Wales
• 2003: Bates loses his job after refusing to accept responsibility for missing funds in the branch accounts
• 2004: More sub-postmasters find themselves asked to explain missing funds and to correct shortfalls, at times stretching into thousands of pounds. Jobs are lost, some are declared bankrupt and some are charged with false accounting or theft - leading to prison sentences
• 2010: A high-profile case of wrongful conviction occurs when pregnant Surrey sub-postmaster Seema Misra is jailed after being accused of stealing £74,000
• 2012: Formal investigations are initiated into the Horizon accounting system
• 2015: The Post Office halts private prosecutions of sub-postmasters
• 2017: Legal action is launched against the Post Office by a group of 555 sub-postmasters, led by Alan Bates
• 2019: Post Office CEO Paula Vennells stands down. The move comes months before the company agrees to pay £58m to the 555 sub-postmasters
• 2021: A public inquiry into the scandal begins
• 2023: The government announces that every wrongly convicted sub-postmaster will be offered £600,000 in compensation
• 2024: There is a resurgence of interest in the scandal thanks to TV series Mr Bates vs the Post Office. Vennells hands back her CBE following a public campaign, and the government announced a quicker comepnsation scheme

At the start of this year, there was a resurgence of interest in the Post Office Horizon IT scandal, thanks to the ITV drama Mr Bates vs The Post Office.

It told the story of hundreds of sub-postmasters and mistresses who were wrongly convicted due to faulty software.

The man who gave his name to that drama - former sub-postmaster Alan Bates - is due to appear before a committee of MPs this morning.

Former Post Office Chairman Henry Staunton, who was recently sacked by Business Secretary Kemi Badenoch, is also due to face questions.

You can watch it all live by pressing the Play button at the top from 10:00 GMT.

Alan Bates is expected to appear from approximately 11:00 GMT - before then will be a panel of witnesses on the compensation scheme.