BEIS0001027
BEISO001027
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8
Department for
Business & Trade
Terms of reference for Horizon Compensation Advisory
Board
1. The Board's aim is to help DBT to ensure fair and prompt compensation to postmasters
affected by the Horizon scandal and related issues.
2. It will advise DBT ministers on how best to manage the delivery of the GLO Compensation
Scheme announced in December 2022, with the aim of ensuring that it:
e provides fair compensation to GLO postmasters;
e does so promptly — and certainly before the deadline of August 2024; and
e does so consistently with the expectations of Parliament that public money is
spent in line with the Accounting Officer’s duties.
3. It will advise DBT ministers in respect of DBT’s oversight of other strands of Horizon-
related compensation by the Post Office, including the Historical Shortfall Scheme,
arrangements for compensation in respect of overturned historic convictions and
compensation for postmaster detriment.
4. The Board will not consider individual cases for compensation.
5. The Board should:
© be provided by DBT with information it requests as necessary to discharge
its functions;
e review regular reports from DBT on the overall progress of cases within the
various strands of compensation;
e regularly review an issues list setting out unresolved policy or process
questions (notably those relating to the maintenance of fairness between
postmasters in different compensation strands) and a timeline for their
resolution;
¢ consider such issues in accordance with that timeline;
e be consulted on guidance or equivalent documents relating to the various
strands of compensation, and any subsequent changes to them;
© monitor the overall progress of all compensation strands, ensuring that
processes are working well and identifying any blockages; and
e provide updates to the Accounting Officer and/or Minister if it believes that
to be necessary.
6. Its membership will comprise:
e Professor Christopher Hodges (Chair), Emeritus Professor of Justice
Systems at the University of Oxford and an expert in Alternative Dispute
Resolution;
e Lord Arbuthnot and Rt Hon Kevan Jones MP, Parliamentary campaigners in
support of postmasters; and
e Professor Richard Moorhead, Professor of Law and Professional Ethics
leading the University of Exeter's Post Office Project.
7. DBT officials will attend as observers.
8. DBT Ministers will revise these terms of reference as they see necessary.