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Howe+Co
Sir Wyn Williams — Chair
Post Office Horizon IT Inquiry
1 Victoria Street
London SW1H 1ET
BY EMAIL ONLY
28 April 2023
Dear Sir Wyn
GLO ex gratia scheme — funding model and deadline
We write to clarify the basis upon which the GLO ex gratia scheme is being funded, and to
propose a potential solution to the concerns, expressed by core participants and the Chair at the
compensation focused hearing of 27 April 2023.
The issue
You will be aware that all claims, and associated disbursements and legal costs, under the scheme
must be resolved by 7 August 2024. You addressed this in your January 2023 report at paragraph
39, where you stated:
The funding for payments under the scheme has been obtained by the Government in
reliance upon statutory provisions which dictate that the funds must be used for their
allocated purpose by that date. That means that approximately 550 claims will have to be
considered in the course of the next 20 months. The experiences gained in administering
the HSS and OHCS demonstrate how challenging this will be.
Yesterday, during the course of the submissions of Mr Chapman for DBT (page 17 lines 6 — 15),
you stated:
Well, I can't express my anxieties about this timeline too strongly. Anxieties in the sense
of, just put to it in terms I think we can all understand, you will have upwards of 400
people, no doubt, by the end, who are making applications under this scheme, and you
have approximately 14 months or thereabouts, 15 months, in order to achieve your
objective. Again, without wishing to attribute blame for this, albeit with much greater
Partners
M.J. Howe BA (Hons)
Email K.P. O'Rourke LL.B (Hons)
DX 315004 Brentford 5 D. Enright LL.B (Hons)
1010 Great West Road, Brentford, TW8 9BA
This firm is authorised and regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority SRA No. 73646 www.howe.co.uk
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numbers, HSS is now roughly three years old and counting, so you understand wly I'm
concerned.
During our submissions our counsel, Mr Jacobs, sought an explanation from DBT as to the funding
basis of the scheme, the rationale for the deadline, and whether there was a contingency plan in
place to provide for cases that are not resolved by 7 August 2024.
Following those submissions, and on the margins of the hearing, Mr Rob Brightwell of DBT
helpfully provided us with a copy of a note on the 1932 concordat, under which he advised that
the scheme has been funded. Mr Brightwell also explained that appropriations made under this
concordat are time limited to 2 years, with no provision for extension.
Enclosed with this letter is a copy of a Parliamentary note on “Government controls on pre
legislative action and expenditure” provided to us by Mr Brightwell. A link to that note can also
be found here.
Mr Brightwell advised that, as interim payments had been commenced in August 2022, the
funding methodology required all payments to be made within 2 years, i.e. 7 August 2024, with
no facility for extension.
Solution
It may be the case that the GLO scheme was funded in this way, rather than through normal
channels, so that a scheme could be launched in haste. Whatever the reasoning for adopting this
model, a means to allow compensation to be paid after 7 August 2024 must be found.
We consider that compensation for GLO SPMs is not contentious, and compensating such SPMs
enjoys wide and publicly expressed support across both Houses, and across all Parties. It is
therefore likely that the government could put the funding of the scheme on a standard footing
within the DBT budget or other Departmental budget without difficulty.
Conclusion
At the close of the hearing of the 27 April 2023, Counsel to the Inquiry, Mr Beer KC invited you
to consider publishing a statutory interim report on compensation matters, in order to address a
number of issues including (page 148, line 5 — 18):
Fourthly, you should consider whether to recommend that, first, the Department must
promptly promulgate a timetable that will deliver fair and reasonable compensation for
all applicants under the GLO scheme before 7 August 2024; that, secondly, that timetable
should be published; thirdly, that the Department must put in place sufficient resources,
including by making appropriate funds available to both the Post Office and to applicants,
to enable the published timetable to be delivered by 7 August 2024.
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So it's essentially the promulgation of a timetable that meets the guillotine point that
the Government itself, through its own legislation, has imposed on this scheme.
Mr Beer KC reminded you that (page 144, line 10 -19):
Although there is no requirement under the Act for the Government or for those to whom
recommendations within a report are addressed formally to respond to such
recommendations, the long-standing convention is that they do so, and that they do so
formally, not simply by taking action or not taking action: by stating whether they accept
your recommendation and, if not, why not
If you conclude, having considered all of the submissions from the relevant parties, and in the
light of Counsel to the Inquiry’s submissions, that it would be appropriate to publish a statutory
interim report, we would ask that you address the 7 August 2024 deadline in any such report.
We would further ask that, in any such report, you recommend that the funding arrangement for
the GLO ex gratia scheme be put on a standard, rather than emergency basis, to provide for
claims to be paid after 7 August 2024.
Finally, we confirm that we are content for this letter and its attachment to be shared with other
core participants, and to be published by the Inquiry.
Yours sincerely
Lowe + Co
Howe + Co
Enclosed — Copy of a Parliamentary note on “Government controls on pre legislative action and
expenditure