BEIS0001042 - Transparency data: Post Office Horizon financial redress data as of 1 March 2024

Evidence on official site

OV.UK

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BS Post Office
“es

Department for
Business & Trade

Transparency data

Post Office Horizon financial

redress data as of 1 March 2024

Updated 4 September 2024

Contents

1.

a PF oN

Claim data by scheme

Notes for table

GLO Scheme delivery target

GLO Scheme £75,000 fixed payment impact
Post Office data
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This publication is available at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/post-office-horizon-
compensation-data-for-2024/post-office-horizon-compensation-data-march-2024
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The government is determined that postmasters affected by the Horizon IT
scandal receive the financial redress that they deserve. As of 1 March 2024,

£179 million has been paid to approximately 2,800 claimants across 3

schemes:

e Horizon Shortfall Scheme (HSS): £107 million

e Group Litigation Order (GLO) Scheme: £34 million total value of all payments
including interim payments

e Overturned Convictions (OC): 102 convictions have been overturned; £38

million total value of all payments including further interim payments

1. Claim data by scheme

Scheme

Overturned Convictions
(OC): initial interim
payments

Overturned Convictions
(OC): full and final
settlements

Group Litigation Order
Scheme (GLO): initial
interim payment

Group Litigation Order
Scheme (GLO): full and
final

Horizon Shortfall
Scheme (HSS): eligible
claims before deadline

Horizon Shortfall
Scheme (HSS): eligible
late claims

Claims
received

97
[+2]

45
[+3]

Not
applicable

132
[+74]

2,417
iB

447
[71]

Offers
made

95
[+3]

37
[+1]

Not
applicable

128
[+76]

2,417
i

242
o

Offers
accepted

90
[+1]

35
[+3]

Not
applicable

110
[+69]

2,055
[+4]

151
[+5]

Claims
paid

90
[+1]

35
[+3]

476-
483*

80
[+52]

2,049
[]

149
[+9]

Information correct as of 29 February 2024 for HSS and OC, and 1st March

2024 for GLO.
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Changes from 1 February 2024 in square brackets.
[-] indicates no change since last month.

*For disclosure reasons, the exact number of claims paid is now withheld.

2. Notes for table

In the ‘Claim data by scheme’ table:

e spend is rounded to nearest £1 million

e data regarding the HSS and OC are sourced from Post Office Ltd, which
retains full responsibility for the data published on its website

2.1 Overturned Convictions (OC)

Initial interim payments are available to eligible postmasters upon getting their
conviction overturned on the grounds that it was reliant on Horizon evidence

A ‘full’ settlement comprises both pecuniary (financial) and non-pecuniary
(personal) losses, but the Post Office has been progressing non-pecuniary
settlements first to get money to postmasters as quickly as possible, which
means a number of partial settlements have been reached in addition to the full
and final settlements published here.

The department is now publishing data on full and final settlements. Claims
received are no longer being broken down into pecuniary and non-pecuniary
settlements as in previous months.

2.2 Group Litigation Order (GLO) Scheme

Out of the 555 who were members of the Group Litigation Order, 63
postmasters had convictions and are therefore eligible to apply for financial
redress once their conviction has been overturned.

The remaining 492 postmasters are currently eligible for the Group Litigation
Order Scheme, of whom 484 qualify for interim payments.
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Progress continues to be made on distributing shares of the £19.5 million
interim payments announced in June 2022.

For disclosure reasons, the exact number of claims paid is now withheld.
This month, the number of payments increased by less than 9.

Work continues on the remaining payments in complex categories such as

those recently deceased and people who have not taken up the offer of an
interim payment.

2.3 Horizon Shortfall Scheme (HSS)
Post Office received 2,417 eligible claims by March 2021.

The closure date for applications was 27 November 2020, but Post Office
continued to accept applications for the original deadline group up to March
2021.

In October 2022, the government announced that additional funding would be
provided so that eligible late claimants could receive financial redress, and the
scheme reopened for applications.

Post Office has received 447 eligible late claims to date.

Interim payments on the HSS are available before and after claimants receive
an offer of redress.

The £107 million paid out on the HSS includes £25.6 million in interim
payments to original claimants and £2.9 million in interim payments to late
applications.

3. GLO Scheme delivery target

The Department for Business and Trade (DBT) is committed to a target of
making a first offer to 90% of claimants who have submitted a full claim within
40 working days.

A full claim is defined as a claim which DBT considers, with advice from its legal
advisors, does not need any further evidence in order to assess every element
of the claim.
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Should the Department consider further evidence is needed in order to make a
full assessment, the 40-working day target will not start until such time that the
required evidence is received from the claimant or any other source.

As of 1 March, 87% of claimants received their first offer within 40 working days
of submitting a full claim.

4. GLO Scheme £75,000 fixed payment
impact

Due to changes made in January 2024, all eligible GLO claimants are now
offered the option to settle their claims on a full and final basis for a total fixed
sum of £75,000 inclusive of interest, instead of making a claim for their
individual losses.

This means that the claim would not be assessed by the department against
the process set out in the guidance and principles
(https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/compensation-scheme-for-group-litigation-
order-case-postmasters).

Any payments received from the department to date or from the GLO settlement
will be deducted from the £75,000 before payment is made.

As of 1st March 2024, 110 offers have been accepted. Over 100 of these have
accepted offers of the £75,000 fixed payment. Of those who have accepted the
£75,000 fixed payment, three quarters are new claims and a quarter had
previously accepted offers.

5. Post Office data

This data is part of DBT’s Post Office Horizon financial redress data collection
(https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/post-office-horizon-compensation-data).

Post Office also publish updates on Overturned Convictions and financial
redress (https://corporate.postoffice.co.uk/en/horizon-scandal-pages/overturned-
convictions-and-financial-redress-information-on-progress/), and the Horizon Shortfall
Scheme (https://corporate.postoffice.co.uk/en/horizon-scandal-pages/horizon-shortfall-
scheme-latest-data-on-progress/) on their website.

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