A new appeal mechanism for applicants to the (now closed) Post Office Horizon Shortfall Scheme (HSS) has been announced by the government. This follows a direct recommendation from the Chair of the Post Office Horizon IT Inquiry in July last year.

The HSS was first announced in 2020. In those days it was called the Historical Shortfall Scheme. It was ill-conceived and beset with disaster from off. More here.

In March 2024, the government announced that applicants to the HSS could accept a £75,000 fixed award, rather than wait to have their compensation claim assessed. The way the £75,000 was offered was roundly panned by Dan Neidle from Tax Policy Associates, working with Chris Head OBE, a former Subpostmaster who has done a LOT of work helping Subpostmasters navigate the various compensation schemes.

The reason this fixed sum award mechanism was roundly panned was because it seemed unfair. Last year, the Chair of the Post Office Horizon IT inquiry agreed. In volume one of his final Inquiry report he recommended that applicants who had received the HSS fixed award should be allowed to appeal it after receiving funded legal advice. And that’s where we are today.

“Postmasters affected by the Horizon scandal who have accepted a £75,000 Fixed Sum Offer (FSO) and believe they were owed more will be able to seek permission to appeal through a new process set to launch later this year”, says the government, which also tells us that £940 million has been paid in redress to over 11,000 claimants on the Horizon Shortfall Scheme (HSS), with an additional £11 million paid in “award uplifts” via the Business Department’s HSS Appeals scheme. 

“This new process gives those who accepted the Fixed Sum Offer a real opportunity to have their case looked at again, with free legal support. If you strongly believe you’re owed more, I encourage you to seek legal advice”, says the Post Office minister, Blair McDougall.

No Jeopardy

Claimants will be reassured to note that there is no jeopardy in this scheme. The £75,000 is the baseline minimum award and any appeal will result in an award lower than £75,000. The appeal process will apparently “be as light touch as possible to minimise burden on claimants.” The government also says applicants are requested to submit “a concise explanation in writing” as to why they think they should get more than £75,000 “and will not be required to submit supporting evidence unless they wish to.” Hmm.

I ran the government announcement by Chris Head, who called it “long overdue for implementation”.

Chris says “This latest appeal process is something I have campaigned about for a long time to the various stakeholders, including the Minister, DBT, the Horizon Compensation Advisory Board and Sir Wyn Williams. The fact that claimants were NOT entitled to upfront legal advice when preparing their initial claim submission, generally led to extremely low and poor offers. When claimants were then dangled the £75,000 carrot, many reluctantly accepted, believing they would never be able to obtain the full and fair redress they believed they were entitled to. I know many had no understanding of what their claims were realistically worth, and without legal knowledge massively undervalued their claims.”

Chris is optimistic the new appeals process could “help deliver the full and fair redress people are owed” but notes “all of this could have been prevented by accepting my recommendation from a number of years ago that upfront legal advice is absolutely necessary to ensure a just outcome.”

Chris finally settled his own claim in November last year, but he remains focused on helping people find their way through the various schemes for redress and associated appeals mechanisms. I asked for his assessment of where we are now. He said “The compensation process has been excruciatingly slow, painful and adversarial from the beginning. The HSS was set up five years ago. The Group Litigation Order Scheme set up in 2023 for the 555 in the Bates vs Post Office litigation is nearing completion. Then we have the Horizon Convictions Redress Scheme which was launched in 2024 following the overturning of convictions by landmark legislation after the Mr Bates vs the Post Office ITV drama. That legislation potentially covered around 1000 victims, yet only 511 claims (as of the 30th April) have been received by the Business Department. And then we have the initial cohort who had their convictions overturned by the Court of Appeal between in 2021 and 2023, some of who are still awaiting full and fair redress and some [like Lee Castleton and Janet Skinner] who are having to initiate further legal action.”

Chris also noted the Capture redress scheme, has only settled 46 claims and is currently dealing with 224 claims.

Chris says it is “obvious” given what he knows about the various schemes “the compensation process will run until the end of 2027 at the earliest and likely well into 2028… That, unfortunately, is the sad reality.”

Latest government figures on the various compensation schemes can be found here. The final part of the Inquiry report has yet to be released. No date has been given as to when we can expect it.

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