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a
Department for
Business & Trade
To: Minister Thomas From: Elena Michael
SCS: Carl Creswell, Director, Post Office and Date: 25 July 2024
Business Engagement, David
Bickerton - DG
FOR DECISION: PUBLICATION OF HORIZON REDRESS SCHEME REPORTS
Summary:
To increase transparency of the redress schemes, the Horizon Compensation
Advisory Board recommended that the Department publish regular reports on
progress and pinch-points in all three Horizon-related redress schemes from their
respective case managers. Your predecessor agreed to this recommendation;
however, reports were not finalised in time to be published before the election was
called.
Recommendations:
e Agree case managers on each scheme should produce monthly reports of
progress of the Horizon redress schemes.
e Agree that the Department should publish the GLO Scheme report on gov.uk,
and Post Office should publish the reports on the Horizon Shortfall Scheme
and Overturned Convictions on their website.
Timing: Publication as soon as possible. The reports were not finalised in time to be
published before the General Election. They have subsequently been updated to
reflect scheme data from the end of June.
Context
1. The Department already publishes monthly data on gov.uk which outlines the
number of claims received, offers made, offers accepted and amounts paid
across the current three Horizon schemes: the Horizon Shortfall Scheme
(HSS), the Overturned Convictions (OC) Scheme and the Group Litigation
Order (GLO) Scheme. The Secretary of State has agreed that these monthly
publications should continue under the new administration.
2. In February 2024, the Horizon Compensation Advisory Board recommended
we publish a more detailed breakdown across the schemes detailing where
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cases are in the system and include independent commentary outlining the
reasons for any delays to settlement.
3. Previous Ministers agreed and commissioned these reports for publication,
but they were not finalised before the announcement of the General Election.
4. Dentons have produced the report on the GLO Scheme. They were procured
as part of the GLO Scheme as specialists in alternative dispute resolution,
facilitating discussions between the claimants and Department with the aim of
reaching a mutually acceptable resolution as quickly as possible.
5. Dentons have oversight of where claims are in the system, and what
influences there are on pace of delivery. Their report cites the initial slow
disclosure from Post Office and delays in obtaining evidence as reasons for
delays in the resolution of some GLO cases. It also outlines the Department's
introduction of the £75k fixed sum award as a positive influence on the
resolution of claims. To note, Post Office disclosure is now complete.
6. The Post Office is responsible for delivery of the HSS and OC, with oversight
from the Department, and they retain full responsibility for the data published
on its website. Post Office have produced the report on the HSS and non-
pecuniary (i.e. non-financial) claims on the OC. These two reports contain
mainly factual information regarding where claims are in the process.
7. Sir Gary Hickinbottom, retired High Court judge, chairs an independent panel
that assesses the pecuniary losses (i.e. financial losses) of postmasters in
the OC Scheme. Sir Gary has therefore produced the report on pecuniary
claims on the OC Scheme. His report cites delays for reasons such as
claimants being traumatised or otherwise suffering from mental health issues,
Post Office being slow to respond to requests and time taken to take
decisions through governance processes.
8. The reports have already been useful in making improvements to address
issues identified. For example, we are trialling a pilot to reduce the evidential
threshold burden on the GLO scheme, which has so far proved successful.
Points for Consideration
9. The department ensures appropriate assurance is carried out when
publishing statistics in the public domain. Post Office Limited data
assurances may not be parallel to departmental practices. General advice
has been provided to Post Office Limited to mitigate risks concerning
incorrect or disclosive data, but quality control and disclosivity checks on data
published by Post Office Limited remain their sole responsibility.
10. Officials will review these reports before publication but will only provide
factual comments to ensure that they are sufficiently independent and are
therefore trusted by subpostmasters.
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11.The Department has made a public commitment to publish these monthly
reports, as recommended by the Advisory Board. A decision not to publish
may be seen as a reverse of the position to be transparent and result in some
criticism.
Recommendation
12.We recommend you agree to the monthly publication of these reports as
outlined above.
Next steps
13.If you agree, we will finalise the reports and publish them over recess.
14. We will also send a copy to the Advisory Board and Select Committee.
Annexes
Annex A: Draft GLO Compensation Scheme report
Annex B: Draft Post Office Horizon Shortfall Scheme report
Annex C: Draft Post Office Overturned Convictions non-pecuniary claims report
Annex D: Draft Post Office Overturned Convictions pecuniary claims report
Clearance list
Clearance Named lead who has
Team
necessary? cleared
scs Mandatory Carl Creswell
Analysts Yes Monique Ebell
Communications (inc named Harriet Clarke
. Yes
Press Officer)