Tom Espiner
Business reporter

The Business and Trade select committee has heard about compensation for sub-postmasters before, but that was when it had different members.

So it was a new committee today, and a fresh chance for victims of the Horizon scandal to have their voices heard.

A key point for Sir Alan Bates is how quickly sub-postmasters are being compensated - not quickly enough for him, and also for some MPs.

We found out:

• Bates twice wrote to the Prime Minister in October pressing him for a March deadline for compensation
• The Prime Minister has responded, saying the government was working as fast as it could
• However, Starmer does not want to impose a deadline due to the risk that some sub-postmasters could miss out

That concludes our live page coverage for today - thank you for joining us. The page was edited by Jeremy Culley, with Tom Espiner, Emma Simpson and Esyllt Carr the writers.

Tom Espiner
Business reporter

Image source, UK parliament

Sir Alan Bates has been putting his case to successive governments for more than a decade now, fighting for justice for sub-postmasters.

He is now pressing this new Labour government, as he did the previous Conservative one, to get swifter compensation for people whose lives were turned upside down after being wrongly accused of stealing money from the Post Office.

The new government has promised to get redress to victims as quickly as possible and it is "doing all it can" to speed up the process - but it doesn't want to give a deadline.

So, for now at least, Sir Alan's fight continues.

Tom Espiner
Business reporter

We have heard a lot this afternoon on the compensation schemes open to sub-postmasters affected in different ways by the scandal.

Here is a brief rundown of the four schemes:

The Group Litigation Order (GLO) scheme was set up for the 555 sub-postmasters who joined Sir Alan Bates in a landmark court case against the Post Office. They won a £42.5m settlement in 2019, but a lot of that was swallowed up by legal costs, so this scheme was set up to make sure they got extra money.

The Horizon Convictions Redress Scheme is for all sub-postmasters who had their convictions quashed automatically by the Post Office Offences Act that was passed earlier this year.

The Overturned Convictions Scheme is for people who had their convictions quashed prior to the act passing through parliament, and the Horizon Shortfall Scheme is for sub-postmasters who were not convicted but poured savings into their businesses to make up supposed losses.

All schemes will pass financial redress to the estate of the sub-postmaster in the event they have died before receiving compensation.

As of 31 October 2024, about £438m had been paid to more than 3,100 claimants across the four schemes, according to government figures, external.

That breaks down (rounded to the nearest million) as:

• Horizon Shortfall Scheme: £230m
• Group Litigation Order Scheme: £106m (total value of all payments including interim payments)
• Overturned Convictions: £60m

• Horizon Convictions Redress Scheme: £42m

This post was amended post-publication to clarify which people are covered by the Horizon Convictions Redress Scheme

Esyllt Carr
Business reporter, BBC News

Back to evidence being heard at the select committee and another lawyer representing victims, David Enright from Howe and Co, says not all those people who have had their convictions quashed have been successfully contacted.

He says government figures show at least 124 people have not been written to at all – adding “it may be far higher than that, it may be hundreds".

Enright told MPs more work was needed to identify those entitled to financial redress. "They need to pick up their musket," he said.

“What is being done to identify the individuals across this country who, as at this moment in time, have been vindicated but have no idea they’ve been vindicated, and have no idea they are entitled to very timely and substantial compensation?”

Sir Alan Bates wrote to the Prime Minister twice last month, wanting him to agree to a March 2025 deadline for the government to settle compensation claims.

But Sir Keir Starmer's spokesperson has said there would not be a deadline imposed.

"What we don't want to do is set an arbitrary cut-off date which could result in some claimants missing the deadline," the spokesperson said. "We obviously don't want to put pressure on claimants and put them off contesting their claim."

However, victims involved in a landmark case against the Post Office that ended in 2019 "should receive substantial redress by the end of March and we are doing everything we can to achieve that goal", the spokesperson added.

We have just heard from Downing Street after Sir Alan Bates earlier revealed he had written to the prime minister twice in the last month over the deadlines for Post Office compensation claims to be settled.

Mr Bates first wrote to the PM on 2 October, and again a few days ago, urging him to make sure victims get full financial redress by March next year, but he said he had not yet received any reply.

Sir Keir Starmer's spokesperson has said a response was issued earlier today.

They said: "It was obviously right that we took the time to consider the issues raised in the letter to the Prime Minister, consider our response, make sure it was accurate and substantial and obviously we engaged with relevant departments to ensure that the Prime Minister's response was as full as possible."

The government is committed to getting redress for those affected as "quickly as possible", and is doing all it can to increase the pace, the spokesperson added.

Emma Simpson
Business correspondent

The lawyers have also been asked about their experience of the Horizon Shortfall compensation scheme.

David Enright says there is no funding for legal advice at the start, with claimants presented with a "DIY questionnaire".

Then, six to nine months later, he says there is a request for more information which often involves 50-150 further questions that can only be answered by the likes of a forensic accountant.

“The system is designed to wear people down,” he tells MPs, with victims getting legal representation only to challenge the initial decision.

“When lawyers get involved, the offers double,” says Neil Hudgell.

Esyllt Carr
Business reporter, BBC News

Another lawyer giving evidence, James Hartley, says that while just over half of his 419 clients have settled their claims, his firm are seeing offers that are "not fair".

He says 27% of first offers made to his clients from the GLO scheme were for less than half of the sum claimed.

"Wow," was the response of one MP.

Tom Espiner
Business reporter

Dr Neil Hudgell, a solicitor whose firm represents sub-postmasters, tells the committee the process Horizon victims go through to get compensation "heaps more injury on them".

His firm has "significant volumes" of medical evidence that the process of compensation is "actually making people unwell", he adds.

Hudgell says some sub-postmasters were being asked to provide proof of losses in claims that are 20 years old, but can't because the evidence had been seized by the Post Office and not given back.

"They [sub-postmasters] actually think again they are being cross-examined and disbelieved," he said, and called for the process to be simplified.

Sir Alan Bates has finished giving evidence for now, as have Jill Donnison and Dewi Lewis.

MPs are now hearing from lawyers for the victims, Dr Neil Hudgell, David Enright and James Hartley.

We'll continue to bring you the latest updates, as well as analysis and reaction to what we have heard so far.

Image source, Dewi Lewis

MPs are hearing more harrowing stories this afternoon, including that of Dewi Lewis, who ran a shop and post office in Penrhyndeudraeth in North Wales.

He was a county councillor and told MPs he believes he was charged with theft because he had a high profile and it would be "front page news".

Lewis pleaded guilty to try and reduce his sentence, but ended up spending three months in prison in 2011, which he said was devastating, especially having to see his parents visit him there.

On leaving prison, he returned to running his shop until he retired earlier this year.

He says he became dependent on medication to "get through", describing himself as a "virtual recluse", and he received the letter quashing his conviction only in August this year.

Despite his ordeal, Lewis says he still feels "fortunate" to have had the support of his community, family and friends. "Nobody thought I was guilty," he says.

But the process of getting his compensation hasn’t been smooth.

His initial interim payment was delayed over a mix-up with a reference number, and finally arrived last week.

"The miracle of a select committee," replied chair Liam Byrne.

Lewis decided to accept the £600,000 take-it-or-leave-it offer because he didn’t have the fight left in him to go for more.

Emma Simpson
Business correspondent

We have been hearing the story of Janet Moorhead once a highly-regarded, award-winning, sub-postmaster from County Durham.

Her daughter Jill Donnison has been telling the committee how her mum ran her business for 16 years but had problems within a week of the Horizon IT system being installed. She had to make good losses of as much as £5,000 within hours of a "shortage" being discovered.

A former school governor and magistrate, Janet threw in the towel and sold her business for a "ridiculous" price and died from ill health two years later, her daughter says.

On the battle for compensation, Jill says her mother had no legal help as she filled out the forms, which were not user-friendly.

When the family finally got an offer, they thought it was fair, until getting legal advice and discovering they were entitled to far more, she adds. Her lawyers told them the offer from the Post Office was for a quarter of what the family had actually lost.

Esyllt Carr
Business reporter, BBC News

Sir Alan Bates says he is not ruling out legal action over delays to compensation being paid.

When asked by Liam Byrne, the committee chair, whether he would consider crowdfunding to return to court, Bates said “I would never say never.”

Legal action was one of several options his campaign group was planning to discuss at a meeting in the coming weeks, he says.

“I know that if we decide to go down that route we are going to halt the current scheme, and it’s going to be at least six, 12 or 24 months before it moves forward in that direction," Bates says, adding: "That might be a choice people are prepared to take."

Tom Espiner
Business reporter

A key point for Sir Alan Bates, which he has made before, is that the government needs to set deadlines for Horizon scandal victims to be given compensation.

He has told MPs he has twice written to Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer in the past month to say "it needs to be finished by the end of March 2025".

"I never received a response," Sir Alan said, adding: "Deadlines do need to be set. People have been waiting far too long."

He says over the 20 years or so this scandal has been rumbling on, more than 70 people have died in the group that launched landmark legal action, and there are people "well into their 80s still suffering".

Bates himself has twice declined compensation this year, saying the first offer in January was "cruel" and "derisory", and about a sixth of what he had claimed.

Tom Espiner
Business reporter

Just as a reminder, Chancellor Rachel Reeves announced last week that £1.8bn had been set aside for the victims of the Horizon scandal.

Sir Alan Bates has previously described that as "interesting", though added the "devil is in the detail".

MPs have now started to ask Sir Alan Bates questions at the Business Select Committee.

You can watch his evidence live via the stream at the top of the page, and we will bring you the latest updates and analysis on what he has to say.

Tom Espiner
Business reporter

Image source, Getty Images

Sir Alan Bates poured his life savings into a Post Office branch in Llandudno, north Wales, but was sacked in 2003 after faulty Horizon software showed up discrepancies in his accounts.

This helped spur him to start up the Justice For Subpostmasters Alliance in 2009, a group that took on the Post Office in the courts and eventually won.

Public interest in the long-running scandal was reignited in January this year after an ITV dramatisation of the scandal, which focused on the fight of Bates and other sub-postmasters who took part in the landmark group legal action.

It has been an eventful year for Bates. In August he married his long-term partner Suzanne Sercombe on Sir Richard Branson's private island in the Caribbean, with the Virgin tycoon officiating at the ceremony.

In September, he was knighted for services to justice after being named in the King's Birthday Honours in June.

Tom Espiner
Business reporter

Between 1999 and 2015, more than 900 sub-postmasters and postmistresses - self-employed people who run Post Office branches - were prosecuted for offences including theft, fraud and false accounting.

The Horizon IT software provided to the Post Office by Fujitsu had been falsely flagging missing money.

Many sub-postmasters protested their innocence, but the Post Office insisted for many years the IT system was robust.

Some sub-postmasters went to prison and others even took their own lives due to the fallout from the scandal.

The Post Office itself prosecuted 700 people, with a further 283 cases brought by other bodies, including the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS).

This has been described as the biggest UK miscarriage of justice, and an inquiry is continuing into how it happened. A law has been passed to quash the convictions.

The Metropolitan Police is now investigating the Post Office itself over potential fraud offences.

Tom Espiner
Business reporter

MPs will hear first from Sir Alan Bates, who with his long-term partner Suzanne Sercombe poured their life savings into a post office business in Wales.

He was sacked in 2003 after the faulty Horizon computer system indicated money was going missing.

Between 1999 and 2015, more than 900 sub-postmasters were prosecuted, with 700 cases brought by the Post Office itself.

The committee will also hear from Jill Donnison, a claimant from one of the compensation schemes, and Dewi Lewis, who was jailed for four months in 2011 after he was accused of stealing more than £50,000 from the Post Office. His conviction was later quashed.

Lawyers representing the claimants - Neil Hudgell, James Hartley and David Enright - will also speak, plus Sir Gary Hickinbottom, who chairs a compensation panel.

Emma Simpson
Business correspondent

This isn't the first time MPs have held an inquiry into compensation for those affected by the Post Office scandal.

The Business and Trade Select Committee is taking a fresh look at what's going wrong and what ministers can do to speed things up.

The committee chair, Labour's Liam Byrne, says although last week's Budget made sure money was in the bank to provide redress, not enough cheques were in the post.

Today MPs are gathering evidence from several victims, including Sir Alan Bates, who is still waiting for his full and final redress, claiming the whole process has become a gravy train for government lawyers.

The committee will also hear from their legal representatives, before putting questions later this month to those responsible for administering the various schemes.