The public inquiry into the Post Office scandal – which was launched in 2021 – will have its first hearing of the year tomorrow, where a Post Office investigator described as having a “heavy footprint” in the affair is expected to give evidence.
Join us back here tomorrow as we bring you all of the latest developments but for now, you can read more of our coverage here:
Today's page was brought to you by Malu Cursino, Thomas Mackintosh, Sam Hancock, Oliver Slow, Ali Abbas Ahmadi, Emily McGarvey, Gabriela Pomeroy, Owen Amos and Gem O'Reilly.
What's happened today?
EPACopyright: EPA
The ITV drama brought the story back into the limelightImage caption: The ITV drama brought the story back into the limelight
We’ll be bringing our live coverage of today’s developments in the
Post Office IT scandal to a close shortly.
Here are some of the main developments from today:
Addressing MPs during Prime Minister’s
Questions, Rishi Sunak said he will introduce new legislation that will ensure
that “those convicted as a result of the Horizon scandal are swiftly exonerated
and compensated”
He also said his government will introduce a
new upfront payment of £75,000 for the “GLO group of postmasters," a reference to 555 people
who successfully challenged the Post Office in 2019
Post Office Minister Kevin Hollinrake later
gave more details of the plans, saying those claiming for exoneration and compensation
will have to sign a statement confirming they did not commit crimes. He said
anyone “falsely signing” the document will be “subject for prosecution for
fraud”
The announcement was largely welcomed by victims
of the scandal, including Alan Bates – who inspired the ITV drama 'Mr Bates vs The
Post Office' – who described it as “another positive development” but added that more
work was needed
Earlier in the day, BBC Breakfast interviewed nine
victims of the Post Office scandal, with one – Mohammed Rasul – saying he had
carried “shame” around the scandal, but that he refuses “to carry it any longer”
Downing Street says it will work with Scotland and Northern Ireland to ensure the victims wrongly accused in those nations can also be cleared
ITV drama success 'beyond our wildest dreams' - director
ITVCopyright: ITV
'Mr Bates Vs The Post Office' brought the Post Office scandal into the limelightImage caption: 'Mr Bates Vs The Post Office' brought the Post Office scandal into the limelight
The director of the ITV drama 'Mr Bates Vs The Post Office' James Strong says the impact of this show is "beyond all of our wildest dreams".
Speaking to BBC Radio Bristol, he says he had hoped the show would shed some light on the issue and inform a million people. Instead, it has "grasp[ed] the whole nation".
He says the showrunners were successful in making people care about what the postmasters and postmistresses went through.
Strong adds that it is right that the issue is getting the attention it deserves, calling what people went through an "absolute scandal".
Police and crime commissioners say questions need to be answered
The Association of Police and Crime Commissioners (APCC) has welcomed the prime minister's announcement of a new bill to exonerate and compensate victims of the Post Office scandal.
However, APCC Chair Donna Jones says questions still need to be answered on how this scandal was allowed to happen.
“As Police Commissioners, we are supporting victims across the country who have been so badly let down by this national scandal," Jones says.
"I’m pleased that compensation will now be paid, and the 700 criminal convictions issued between 1999 and 2015 will be quashed, however the victims of this scandal still deserve answers. Only then will they have justice.”
She says there are two parts to the next stage: the convictions and compensations to be paid, and "an expedited investigation into those running the Post Office" and their role as sub-postmasters' employers.
She says the APCC is "committed" to ensure "justice is delivered in a timely manner".
Former Fujitsu chief executive still on Prince's Trust advisory group
Sean Coughlan
Royal correspondent
Michael Keegan, who had senior roles in Fujitsu, remains as a member of the Prince’s Trust corporate advisory group and technology committee, the royal charity has confirmed.
Keegan, husband of the Education Secretary Gillian Keegan, has previously emphasised his limited involvement in Fujitsu’s links with the Post Office and Horizon.
There have been calls for Fujitsu to bear some of the cost of compensation for the Post Office scandal.
Keegan is also currently a Crown Representative for the Cabinet Office.
Faulty Horizon software was 'final straw' for sub-postmaster
BBCCopyright: BBC
John Hanna still lives in the building that used to house the post office and shop in StudhamImage caption: John Hanna still lives in the building that used to house the post office and shop in Studham
John
Hanna, who closed his struggling Post Office in Studham, Bedfordshire, in 2001,
said issues with the Horizon software were “the final straw”.
Hanna
told BBC Three Counties Radio that his family had run the shop since 1837, and
he had been involved since 1984, when “life was good”.
However,
in later years he began to face issues including armed raids at the shop, late
deliveries, and a fall in takings.
He
said he used “hundreds of pounds” out of his own pocket to cover accounting deficits
brought up by the faulty Horizon software, describing it as “the final straw
that made [running the shop] just an ordeal”.
How was the Horizon system faulty?
Gem O'Reilly
Live reporter
EPACopyright: EPA
One former sub-postmistress said her numbers "doubled before her eyes" because of the Horizon systemImage caption: One former sub-postmistress said her numbers "doubled before her eyes" because of the Horizon system
We've been hearing about the unexplained shortfalls sub-postmasters and mistresses were experiencing, but what actually went wrong with the Horizon IT system?
It's the responsibility of those running Post Office branches to balance their accounts, which was previously done on paper, but in 1999, Fujitsu's Horizon was introduced.
Almost immediately there was an increase in the number of staff experiencing accounting shortfalls which they could not explain.
Josephine Hamilton, a former sub-postmistress from South Warnborough who was convicted of fraud, says she saw the amount "double before her eyes" while using the software.
Josephine said at first the Horizon system showed there was £2,000 missing.
She then contacted the Post Office support, who advised her, but after following their instructions, the amount doubled to £4,000.
Many reported that the Horizon system made it look like money was missing when it wasn't.
Jason Coyne, an IT expert, was instructed to examine the computer system in 2003 and reported "concerning discrepancies".
Coyne said there "was clearly defective elements of its hardware, software and interfaces, and the majority of errors noticed in the fault logs could not be attributed to the sub-postmaster".
Coyne said the Post Office data was "unreliable" but he was ignored, sacked, and then discredited.
Post update
For
more on this story you can watch Panorama’s investigation into the Post Office
scandal tonight at 22.40 GMT on BBC1 and right now on iplayer.
BBC Verify
How much did we know about the scandal in 2019?
Kevin Hollinrake, the
minister responsible for postal services since 2022, was asked on Radio 4 this morning if he thought
it was a mistake to give a CBE to Paula Vennells in 2019, which she is now
giving back.
"I absolutely think
looking back with the benefit of hindsight that was a mistake - we didn't know
then what we know now," he said.
Paula Vennells was given her
CBE at the start of 2019 for services to the Post Office and to charity, and
stood down as chief executive of the Post Office in February that year.
Quite a lot was known about
the scandal by the start of 2019, including:
In 2012, formal
investigations into the Horizon software had begun
In 2015, the Post Office
halted its private prosecutions of sub-postmasters
In 2017, legal action was
launched against the Post Office by 555 of them
Seven Post Office workers of South Asian heritage have told the BBC they believe racism affected the way people were treated in the Horizon scandal.
One of the workers who spoke to BBC Newsnight said: "It felt like they thought that you were a foreigner and you'd robbed them."
The Horizon scandal saw 700 sub-postmasters prosecuted from 1999 to 2015, with some going to prison.
The Post Office says it aims to get to "the truth of what went wrong".
One man from an Indian background said a member of Post Office staff told him: "All the Indians are doing it. They have relatives so they take the money and send it to them abroad".
Another person of South Asian descent said: "It was like we were dumb because English wasn't our first language, that we struggled to make sense of basic accounting".
Lawyer who represented postmasters praises £75k compensation
Earlier we reported on the government's pledge to provide a group of former postmasters who brought a lawsuit against the Post Office - known as the 555 - with an upfront £75,000 payment.
The lawyer who represented the 555 in their first legal action against the Post Office, James Hartley, says today's compensation announcement "is a sensible step forward".
Hartley says it will also give postmasters and postmistresses the option to decide "whether or not to accept that payment as fair compensation".
"Our focus remains on driving forward all the compensation claims as quickly as possible," he adds.
Legislation could be set up in six weeks - advisory board member
PA MediaCopyright: PA Media
Lord Arbuthnot ahead of a meeting of the Horizon Compensation Advisory Board on WednesdayImage caption: Lord Arbuthnot ahead of a meeting of the Horizon Compensation Advisory Board on Wednesday
Conservative
peer Lord Arbuthnot, who has long campaigned for victims of the Horizon
scandal, suggested legislation to exonerate those falsely convicted. could be set up in as little as six weeks.
“We’ll all want it to be as quick as it possibly can while making sure that it doesn’t make things worse, which legislation can sometimes do,” Lord Arbuthnot said.
He said ministers and the advisory board would consider issues with the proposed legislation, including how to extend it to encompass Scotland and Northern Ireland.
“The government has moved very quickly and the [ITV]
drama has had a galvanising effect,” said the former MP, who is a member of the
Horizon Compensation Advisory Board, which met today after the government’s
announcement.
Acknowledging concerns that the legislation could lead to people who have committed crimes being exonerated, he said the proposals were “the only solution which is sensible in the circumstances”.
Watch: New law pledged but issues remain
Video content
Video caption: The BBC's political editor Chris Mason explains how a Christmas holiday TV drama is helping to change the law.The BBC's political editor Chris Mason explains how a Christmas holiday TV drama is helping to change the law.
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak says the government will bring in a new law to "swiftly exonerate and compensate victims" of the Post Office scandal.
The BBC's political editor Chris Mason explains how a Christmas holiday TV drama is helping to change the law.
'People abused us in the street... my children were bullied'
BBCCopyright: BBC
Lee Castleton's family were ostracised after being wrongly accusedImage caption: Lee Castleton's family were ostracised after being wrongly accused
Lee
Castleton is a former sub-postmaster who was left bankrupt after
a two-year legal battle with the Post Office. He was portrayed in the ITV drama about
the scandal.
Castleton
said it cost him £321,000 to go through the legal process with the Post Office. His family were “ostracised” in their village
in Yorkshire, he said. “People abused us in the street for being thieves and my
children were bullied.”
He told the BBC the compensation payment announced by the government was "much appreciated, but I would just like to get to the end of this really".
BBC Verify
What was the Crown Prosecution Service’s role in the scandal?
ReutersCopyright: Reuters
While the
majority of prosecutions of sub-postmasters and mistresses – as part of
the Horizon IT scandal - were brought privately by the Post Office, 283 cases
were brought by other bodies, according to the Post Office.
These included the Crown
Prosecution Service (CPS) which prosecutes criminal cases in England and Wales,
more
than 400,000 in the last financial year (2022-23).
We asked the CPS how many
cases were brought against the sub-postmasters and it told us that it has so far
identified 11 cases it prosecuted between 2001 and 2020. We have asked what the
outcomes of these cases were.
The Labour leader
Sir Keir Starmer was Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) at the CPS between
2008 and 2013.
We asked the CPS
how many of these cases it prosecuted during this period and
whether Starmer was aware of them, but it would not say.
We also asked
Labour but it referred us back to the CPS.
'My mum died before my conviction was overturned'
BBCCopyright: BBC
Alison Hall was one of the many people wrongly convicted of crimesImage caption: Alison Hall was one of the many people wrongly convicted of crimes
Alison Hall, from Liversedge in West Yorkshire, was sub-postmistress at Hightown Post Office, near Huddersfield, but was suspended in 2010 after the accounting system showed a shortfall of £14,800.
She was threatened with prosecution for theft and ended up admitting a lesser charge of false accounting, for which she was given a criminal record and 120 hours of community service.
She also had to pay the missing sum, plus £1,000 in legal costs, out of her own money.
But, the hardest thing for Hall was her mother passing away before her conviction was overturned in April 2021.
Hall has been granted an interim compensation payment of £100,000, but said she was still waiting for a full payment.
What's the latest?
EPACopyright: EPA
Good afternoon. If you're just joining us, welcome, as we continue to report on the latest developments on the Post Office IT scandal. Here are some of today's main findings:
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak announced during Prime Minister's Questions that the government will bring in a new law to "swiftly exonerate and compensate victims" of the scandal
A group of former postmasters who brought forward a group lawsuit, known as the 555, will be offered a £75,000 upfront payment, the government says
During an urgent question on the subject in the House of Commons, Post Office Minister Kevin Hollinrake announced that victims will be able to sign a form to say they are innocent in order to have their convictions overturned and to claim compensation
At the heart of this scandal is a faulty Horizon IT system, which led to the Post Office prosecuting 736 sub-postmasters and mistresses between 1999 and 2015
Reacting to news of the law, former postmaster Alan Bates - who inspired the widely discussed ITV drama about the scandal - told the BBC the announcement was "another positive step forward"
Listen: Jon Kay and the Post Office victims
BBCCopyright: BBC
Jon Kay (centre) with victims of the Post Office scandalImage caption: Jon Kay (centre) with victims of the Post Office scandal
This morning, nine victims of the Post Office scandal were on the BBC Breakfast sofa.
How the exoneration scheme will work - new details
Dominic Casciani
Home and legal correspondent
It’s going to be some weeks before the legislation is presented to Parliament, but we now have an idea of how the government envisages the plan working.
In short, the bill won’t list name-by-name the individuals the government proposes to clear of wrongdoing.
Instead, it will set out that anyone found guilty of a Post Office scandal-related offence during the critical time period will have their conviction quashed as soon as the legislation receives Royal Assent.
So exoneration will be a truly automatic process: no name read out, no declaration in court. It also means that not only will the innocent have convictions quashed, but maybe a small number of genuinely guilty too.
Officials are working behind the scenes to resolve important questions, such as how an individual's formal criminal record will be swiftly expunged and what to do with appeals that have already failed.
There are also issues to solve for people convicted in Scotland and Northern Ireland.
Here’s the really interesting bit.
The government’s standing compensation offer for Post Office workers who were victims of miscarriages of justice is a no-questions-asked £600,000.
Nobody exonerated under the plan can get at that cash until they sign a declaration that they definitely weren’t guilty.
That form will effectively be a legal promise: anyone who signs it and was later shown to have been genuinely on the take in the past could then be prosecuted for attempting to defraud the government of the compensation.
A quick look at how all this affects victims in Scotland
Georgia Roberts
Westminster Correspondent, BBC Scotland
In Scotland, the Scottish government is considering separate
laws to exonerate the victims of the Post Office scandal there, given the new laws will
cover England and Wales only.
Around 100 of the 700 convicted cases across the UK are
thought to be in Scotland, and there have only been a couple of successful
appeals so far.
Scotland has a separate legal system and courts under which
people were pursued, therefore the Scottish government is responsible for an
equivalent process of its choosing.
It will need to be done in such a way as to allow
compensation payments. The UK government says it’ll be sharing information and
working with the Scottish government on what exactly the requirements for that
will be.
Those talks began this morning ahead of UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak's announcement in the House of Commons.
Live Reporting
Edited by Emily McGarvey
All times stated are UK
Get involved
- Post Office scandal: 'I carried the shame - I refuse to carry it any longer'
- Post Office victims to have convictions overturned
- Jailed postmaster unconvinced by Sunak's new plan
EPACopyright: EPA The ITV drama brought the story back into the limelightImage caption: The ITV drama brought the story back into the limelight -
Addressing MPs during Prime Minister’s
Questions, Rishi Sunak said he will introduce new legislation that will ensure
that “those convicted as a result of the Horizon scandal are swiftly exonerated
and compensated”
-
He also said his government will introduce a
new upfront payment of £75,000 for the “GLO group of postmasters," a reference to 555 people
who successfully challenged the Post Office in 2019
-
Post Office Minister Kevin Hollinrake later
gave more details of the plans, saying those claiming for exoneration and compensation
will have to sign a statement confirming they did not commit crimes. He said
anyone “falsely signing” the document will be “subject for prosecution for
fraud”
-
The announcement was largely welcomed by victims
of the scandal, including Alan Bates – who inspired the ITV drama 'Mr Bates vs The
Post Office' – who described it as “another positive development” but added that more
work was needed
-
Earlier in the day, BBC Breakfast interviewed nine
victims of the Post Office scandal, with one – Mohammed Rasul – saying he had
carried “shame” around the scandal, but that he refuses “to carry it any longer”
-
Downing Street says it will work with Scotland and Northern Ireland to ensure the victims wrongly accused in those nations can also be cleared
ITVCopyright: ITV 'Mr Bates Vs The Post Office' brought the Post Office scandal into the limelightImage caption: 'Mr Bates Vs The Post Office' brought the Post Office scandal into the limelight 
BBCCopyright: BBC John Hanna still lives in the building that used to house the post office and shop in StudhamImage caption: John Hanna still lives in the building that used to house the post office and shop in Studham 
EPACopyright: EPA One former sub-postmistress said her numbers "doubled before her eyes" because of the Horizon systemImage caption: One former sub-postmistress said her numbers "doubled before her eyes" because of the Horizon system -
In 2012, formal
investigations into the Horizon software had begun
-
In 2015, the Post Office
halted its private prosecutions of sub-postmasters
-
In 2017, legal action was
launched against the Post Office by 555 of them
Getty ImagesCopyright: Getty Images -
Read the full story here.
PA MediaCopyright: PA Media Lord Arbuthnot ahead of a meeting of the Horizon Compensation Advisory Board on WednesdayImage caption: Lord Arbuthnot ahead of a meeting of the Horizon Compensation Advisory Board on Wednesday Video caption: The BBC's political editor Chris Mason explains how a Christmas holiday TV drama is helping to change the law.The BBC's political editor Chris Mason explains how a Christmas holiday TV drama is helping to change the law. 
BBCCopyright: BBC Lee Castleton's family were ostracised after being wrongly accusedImage caption: Lee Castleton's family were ostracised after being wrongly accused 
ReutersCopyright: Reuters 
BBCCopyright: BBC Alison Hall was one of the many people wrongly convicted of crimesImage caption: Alison Hall was one of the many people wrongly convicted of crimes 
EPACopyright: EPA -
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak announced during Prime Minister's Questions that the government will bring in a new law to "swiftly exonerate and compensate victims" of the scandal
-
A group of former postmasters who brought forward a group lawsuit, known as the 555, will be offered a £75,000 upfront payment, the government says
-
During an urgent question on the subject in the House of Commons, Post Office Minister Kevin Hollinrake announced that victims will be able to sign a form to say they are innocent in order to have their convictions overturned and to claim compensation
-
At the heart of this scandal is a faulty Horizon IT system, which led to the Post Office prosecuting 736 sub-postmasters and mistresses between 1999 and 2015
-
Reacting to news of the law, former postmaster Alan Bates - who inspired the widely discussed ITV drama about the scandal - told the BBC the announcement was "another positive step forward"
BBCCopyright: BBC Jon Kay (centre) with victims of the Post Office scandalImage caption: Jon Kay (centre) with victims of the Post Office scandal 
Latest PostThanks for joining us
The public inquiry into the Post Office scandal – which was launched in 2021 – will have its first hearing of the year tomorrow, where a Post Office investigator described as having a “heavy footprint” in the affair is expected to give evidence.
Join us back here tomorrow as we bring you all of the latest developments but for now, you can read more of our coverage here:
Today's page was brought to you by Malu Cursino, Thomas Mackintosh, Sam Hancock, Oliver Slow, Ali Abbas Ahmadi, Emily McGarvey, Gabriela Pomeroy, Owen Amos and Gem O'Reilly.
What's happened today?
We’ll be bringing our live coverage of today’s developments in the Post Office IT scandal to a close shortly.
Here are some of the main developments from today:
ITV drama success 'beyond our wildest dreams' - director
The director of the ITV drama 'Mr Bates Vs The Post Office' James Strong says the impact of this show is "beyond all of our wildest dreams".
Speaking to BBC Radio Bristol, he says he had hoped the show would shed some light on the issue and inform a million people. Instead, it has "grasp[ed] the whole nation".
He says the showrunners were successful in making people care about what the postmasters and postmistresses went through.
Strong adds that it is right that the issue is getting the attention it deserves, calling what people went through an "absolute scandal".
Police and crime commissioners say questions need to be answered
The Association of Police and Crime Commissioners (APCC) has welcomed the prime minister's announcement of a new bill to exonerate and compensate victims of the Post Office scandal.
However, APCC Chair Donna Jones says questions still need to be answered on how this scandal was allowed to happen.
“As Police Commissioners, we are supporting victims across the country who have been so badly let down by this national scandal," Jones says.
"I’m pleased that compensation will now be paid, and the 700 criminal convictions issued between 1999 and 2015 will be quashed, however the victims of this scandal still deserve answers. Only then will they have justice.”
She says there are two parts to the next stage: the convictions and compensations to be paid, and "an expedited investigation into those running the Post Office" and their role as sub-postmasters' employers.
She says the APCC is "committed" to ensure "justice is delivered in a timely manner".
Former Fujitsu chief executive still on Prince's Trust advisory group
Sean Coughlan
Royal correspondent
Michael Keegan, who had senior roles in Fujitsu, remains as a member of the Prince’s Trust corporate advisory group and technology committee, the royal charity has confirmed.
Keegan, husband of the Education Secretary Gillian Keegan, has previously emphasised his limited involvement in Fujitsu’s links with the Post Office and Horizon.
There have been calls for Fujitsu to bear some of the cost of compensation for the Post Office scandal.
Keegan is also currently a Crown Representative for the Cabinet Office.
Faulty Horizon software was 'final straw' for sub-postmaster
John Hanna, who closed his struggling Post Office in Studham, Bedfordshire, in 2001, said issues with the Horizon software were “the final straw”.
Hanna told BBC Three Counties Radio that his family had run the shop since 1837, and he had been involved since 1984, when “life was good”.
However, in later years he began to face issues including armed raids at the shop, late deliveries, and a fall in takings.
He said he used “hundreds of pounds” out of his own pocket to cover accounting deficits brought up by the faulty Horizon software, describing it as “the final straw that made [running the shop] just an ordeal”.
How was the Horizon system faulty?
Gem O'Reilly
Live reporter
We've been hearing about the unexplained shortfalls sub-postmasters and mistresses were experiencing, but what actually went wrong with the Horizon IT system?
It's the responsibility of those running Post Office branches to balance their accounts, which was previously done on paper, but in 1999, Fujitsu's Horizon was introduced.
Almost immediately there was an increase in the number of staff experiencing accounting shortfalls which they could not explain.
Josephine Hamilton, a former sub-postmistress from South Warnborough who was convicted of fraud, says she saw the amount "double before her eyes" while using the software.
Josephine said at first the Horizon system showed there was £2,000 missing.
She then contacted the Post Office support, who advised her, but after following their instructions, the amount doubled to £4,000.
Many reported that the Horizon system made it look like money was missing when it wasn't.
Jason Coyne, an IT expert, was instructed to examine the computer system in 2003 and reported "concerning discrepancies".
Coyne said there "was clearly defective elements of its hardware, software and interfaces, and the majority of errors noticed in the fault logs could not be attributed to the sub-postmaster".
Coyne said the Post Office data was "unreliable" but he was ignored, sacked, and then discredited.
Post update
For more on this story you can watch Panorama’s investigation into the Post Office scandal tonight at 22.40 GMT on BBC1 and right now on iplayer.
BBC Verify
How much did we know about the scandal in 2019?
Kevin Hollinrake, the minister responsible for postal services since 2022, was asked on Radio 4 this morning if he thought it was a mistake to give a CBE to Paula Vennells in 2019, which she is now giving back.
"I absolutely think looking back with the benefit of hindsight that was a mistake - we didn't know then what we know now," he said.
Paula Vennells was given her CBE at the start of 2019 for services to the Post Office and to charity, and stood down as chief executive of the Post Office in February that year.
Quite a lot was known about the scandal by the start of 2019, including:
You can find a timeline of the scandal here.
Racism affected how we were treated, says victims
Sima Kotecha
BBC Newsnight
Seven Post Office workers of South Asian heritage have told the BBC they believe racism affected the way people were treated in the Horizon scandal.
One of the workers who spoke to BBC Newsnight said: "It felt like they thought that you were a foreigner and you'd robbed them."
The Horizon scandal saw 700 sub-postmasters prosecuted from 1999 to 2015, with some going to prison.
The Post Office says it aims to get to "the truth of what went wrong".
One man from an Indian background said a member of Post Office staff told him: "All the Indians are doing it. They have relatives so they take the money and send it to them abroad".
Another person of South Asian descent said: "It was like we were dumb because English wasn't our first language, that we struggled to make sense of basic accounting".
Lawyer who represented postmasters praises £75k compensation
Earlier we reported on the government's pledge to provide a group of former postmasters who brought a lawsuit against the Post Office - known as the 555 - with an upfront £75,000 payment.
The lawyer who represented the 555 in their first legal action against the Post Office, James Hartley, says today's compensation announcement "is a sensible step forward".
Hartley says it will also give postmasters and postmistresses the option to decide "whether or not to accept that payment as fair compensation".
"Our focus remains on driving forward all the compensation claims as quickly as possible," he adds.
Legislation could be set up in six weeks - advisory board member
Conservative peer Lord Arbuthnot, who has long campaigned for victims of the Horizon scandal, suggested legislation to exonerate those falsely convicted. could be set up in as little as six weeks.
“We’ll all want it to be as quick as it possibly can while making sure that it doesn’t make things worse, which legislation can sometimes do,” Lord Arbuthnot said.
He said ministers and the advisory board would consider issues with the proposed legislation, including how to extend it to encompass Scotland and Northern Ireland.
“The government has moved very quickly and the [ITV] drama has had a galvanising effect,” said the former MP, who is a member of the Horizon Compensation Advisory Board, which met today after the government’s announcement.
Acknowledging concerns that the legislation could lead to people who have committed crimes being exonerated, he said the proposals were “the only solution which is sensible in the circumstances”.
Watch: New law pledged but issues remain
Video content
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak says the government will bring in a new law to "swiftly exonerate and compensate victims" of the Post Office scandal.
The BBC's political editor Chris Mason explains how a Christmas holiday TV drama is helping to change the law.
'People abused us in the street... my children were bullied'
Lee Castleton is a former sub-postmaster who was left bankrupt after a two-year legal battle with the Post Office. He was portrayed in the ITV drama about the scandal.
Castleton said it cost him £321,000 to go through the legal process with the Post Office. His family were “ostracised” in their village in Yorkshire, he said. “People abused us in the street for being thieves and my children were bullied.”
He told the BBC the compensation payment announced by the government was "much appreciated, but I would just like to get to the end of this really".
BBC Verify
What was the Crown Prosecution Service’s role in the scandal?
While the majority of prosecutions of sub-postmasters and mistresses – as part of the Horizon IT scandal - were brought privately by the Post Office, 283 cases were brought by other bodies, according to the Post Office.
These included the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) which prosecutes criminal cases in England and Wales, more than 400,000 in the last financial year (2022-23).
We asked the CPS how many cases were brought against the sub-postmasters and it told us that it has so far identified 11 cases it prosecuted between 2001 and 2020. We have asked what the outcomes of these cases were.
The Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer was Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) at the CPS between 2008 and 2013.
We asked the CPS how many of these cases it prosecuted during this period and whether Starmer was aware of them, but it would not say.
We also asked Labour but it referred us back to the CPS.
'My mum died before my conviction was overturned'
Alison Hall, from Liversedge in West Yorkshire, was sub-postmistress at Hightown Post Office, near Huddersfield, but was suspended in 2010 after the accounting system showed a shortfall of £14,800.
She was threatened with prosecution for theft and ended up admitting a lesser charge of false accounting, for which she was given a criminal record and 120 hours of community service.
She also had to pay the missing sum, plus £1,000 in legal costs, out of her own money.
But, the hardest thing for Hall was her mother passing away before her conviction was overturned in April 2021.
Hall has been granted an interim compensation payment of £100,000, but said she was still waiting for a full payment.
What's the latest?
Good afternoon. If you're just joining us, welcome, as we continue to report on the latest developments on the Post Office IT scandal. Here are some of today's main findings:
Listen: Jon Kay and the Post Office victims
This morning, nine victims of the Post Office scandal were on the BBC Breakfast sofa.
You can hear them, and the thoughts of presenter Jon Kay, in the BBC's 5 Minutes On podcast.
How the exoneration scheme will work - new details
Dominic Casciani
Home and legal correspondent
It’s going to be some weeks before the legislation is presented to Parliament, but we now have an idea of how the government envisages the plan working.
In short, the bill won’t list name-by-name the individuals the government proposes to clear of wrongdoing.
Instead, it will set out that anyone found guilty of a Post Office scandal-related offence during the critical time period will have their conviction quashed as soon as the legislation receives Royal Assent.
So exoneration will be a truly automatic process: no name read out, no declaration in court. It also means that not only will the innocent have convictions quashed, but maybe a small number of genuinely guilty too.
Officials are working behind the scenes to resolve important questions, such as how an individual's formal criminal record will be swiftly expunged and what to do with appeals that have already failed.
There are also issues to solve for people convicted in Scotland and Northern Ireland.
Here’s the really interesting bit.
The government’s standing compensation offer for Post Office workers who were victims of miscarriages of justice is a no-questions-asked £600,000.
Nobody exonerated under the plan can get at that cash until they sign a declaration that they definitely weren’t guilty.
That form will effectively be a legal promise: anyone who signs it and was later shown to have been genuinely on the take in the past could then be prosecuted for attempting to defraud the government of the compensation.
A quick look at how all this affects victims in Scotland
Georgia Roberts
Westminster Correspondent, BBC Scotland
In Scotland, the Scottish government is considering separate laws to exonerate the victims of the Post Office scandal there, given the new laws will cover England and Wales only.
Around 100 of the 700 convicted cases across the UK are thought to be in Scotland, and there have only been a couple of successful appeals so far.
Scotland has a separate legal system and courts under which people were pursued, therefore the Scottish government is responsible for an equivalent process of its choosing.
It will need to be done in such a way as to allow compensation payments. The UK government says it’ll be sharing information and working with the Scottish government on what exactly the requirements for that will be.
Those talks began this morning ahead of UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak's announcement in the House of Commons.