RLIT0000618 - Post Office Update - Statement made by Paul Scully (Minister for Small Business, Consumers and Labour Markets)

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Statement made by

Paul Scully >
Minister for London and Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Minister for Small Business, Consumers and
Labour Markets)

Conservative

Sutton and Cheam Vial commons

Statement

As the House is aware, the Post Office Horizon scandal, which began over 20 years ago, has had a devastating impact on the lives of
many postmasters. The High Court Group Litigation Order (GLO) case against the Post Office brought by 555 postmasters exposed the
Horizon IT scandal which had seen many postmasters forced to “repay” to Post Office sums which they had never received. Many

were dismissed, prosecuted and even imprisoned.

The Government has long considered unfair the unequal treatment received by members of the GLO and their non-GLO peers. Iam
therefore pleased to announce that the Chancellor will make additional funding available to give those in the GLO group

compensation similar to that which is available to their non-GLO peers.

Because they had signed a “full and final” settlement of their court case in 2019, postmasters in the group were ineligible to apply to
the Historical Shortfall Scheme (HSS) which their legal action had established. So despite winning the case, the group was left worse
off than the other affected postmasters for whom they had blazed the trail. Each postmaster in the group received an average of
around £20,000.

To enable the GLO Group to undertake litigation against Post Office they secured funding from litigation funders Therium. Following
extensive work to ensure the full compensation went to the postmasters, I am pleased that Therium have agreed to waive their rights
to any claim on this compensation.

I plan to return to the House in due course to announce our next steps.

Statement from

Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy

Linked statements

This statement has also been made in the House of Lords
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Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy >
Post Office update
Lord Callanan
Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Minister for Business, Energy and Corporate Responsibility)
Conservative, Life peer
Statement made 22 March 2022
Hiwsess Til Lords

UK Parliament 2095