Post Office scandal inquiry urges authorities to take motion and alter legislation

An inquiry into funds for Post Office staff affected by the Horizon IT scandal is urging the federal government to take motion and alter the legislation as a result of “full and fair” compensation is being blocked.

In a report which has been laid earlier than parliament, the chair of the inquiry into the scandal, Sir Wyn Williams, additionally criticised the make-up of the scheme set as much as pay compensation to these affected.

He stated: “What has emerged is a patchwork quilt of compensation schemes. And, unfortunately, it is a patchwork quilt with some holes in it.”

If the scheme was devised at this time, there could be only one somewhat than three separate schemes, he stated, however added “we are too far down the road” to ponder abandoning them.

Sir Wyn additionally pointed to quite a few commitments made by the Post Office and ministers over a three-year interval to supply what it describes as “full and fair” compensation.

He didn’t see any legitimate cause why the federal government and Post Office couldn’t ship on their commitments.

The interim report from the chair of the Post Office Horizon IT inquiry was launched on Monday. It units out suggestions on the three schemes established by the Post Office and the federal government to compensate sub-postmasters.

Uncertainty in regards to the tax standing of scheme funds and timelines and cut-off factors additionally got here below scrutiny by Sir Wyn.

“There is still a lack of clarity as to the basis upon which tax is payable or not payable under the various schemes,” he stated.

The time interval for making funds to sub-postmasters who sued the Post Office is 7 August 2024, which Sir Wyn stated “will not be achieved”. It would imply that 550 claims must be heard inside 20 months.

Addressing the historic shortfall scheme Sir Wyn stated: “I am left with the distinct impression that the most complex cases have not been addressed as speedily as might have been the case.”

An inquiry was launched after greater than 700 former Post Office sub-postmasters had been wrongly prosecuted for theft and false accounting over years in one of the vital widespread miscarriages of justice in UK historical past.

More than 700 department managers had been prosecuted between 1999 and 2015 on theft, fraud and false accounting fees due to a computing error. Wrong sums for gross sales got by Horizon IT, making it seem like sub-postmasters had been stealing funds.

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“Many hundreds of people suffered disastrous consequences by reason of the misuse of data from Horizon, and thousands more suffered very significantly,” Sir Wyn stated.

Despite it being greater than a yr since Sir Wyn closed the “human impact evidence” portion of the inquiry, he stated “the effect of the evidence upon me hasn’t changed”.

“It hasn’t lessened to a degree.”