Paul Scully is the Conservative MP for Sutton and Cheam, and a former Post Office minister.
Before Parliament broke for Christmas recess, Kevin Hollinrake spoke to a mainly empty chamber as he pushed through the Post Office (Horizon System) Compensation Bill.
This week he updated a packed chamber. The main difference? A compelling ITV drama, Mr Bates vs the Post Office, detailing the emotional, systematic dismantling of the lives of Alan Bates, Jo Hamilton, Lee Castleton and indeed, the tragic end of the life of Martin Griffiths.
These central characters were representative of more than 700 sub-postmasters convicted of theft or false accounting and thousands who lost significant amounts of money through the faulty Horizon software that the Post Office claimed was infallible.
The salience of any news story tends to be short, fuelled by emotive photos or footage. As the Israel-Hamas war continues, fewer people are talking about Ukraine, fewer still about Yemen, and next to no-one about Myanmar which is in the throes of a civil war. News cycles move on even if the events remain.
Journalists, notably the assiduous Nick Wallis, have covered the Horizon scandal, but it took the intense storytelling by writer Gwyneth Hughes, and incredible performances, to bring tears, anger and a deep sense of injustice to the British public.
The belated but welcome increase in attention by MPs is the same as some in the media and most of the public. They’re only human. And the Horizon scandal, from the devastation, the cover-up and the solution, is very much a human story.
The court case at the end of the series was not the end. The Post Office pushed Alan Bates and the other postmasters until they had effectively run out of money, forcing them to settle and resulting in most of their compensation going to their funders. Although they laid the path for others, they remain woefully out of pocket themselves. The wrongful convictions remained.
I became Business Minister in February 2020, just before lockdown. Postal Affairs was one part of a wide portfolio. I was told that the court case was a matter for the Post Office and the 555 postmasters who had received full and final settlement so government could not get involved; the judgement of Justice Fraser ran to hundreds of pages, so there was plenty from which lessons could be learnt.
That just didn’t pass muster, so I established an inquiry, originally on a non-statutory basis, to get swift justice and to ensure money was spent on compensating victims rather than lawyers. It soon became apparent that no less than a statutory footing would do.
Postmasters were powerless throughout the scandal. Restoring some power through compensation was prioritised, whilst answers were being sought. Those who lost money because of Horizon were able to apply to the Horizon Shortfall Scheme advertised by the Post Office; some threw in the towel before they were charged.
Convicted criminals, however unjustly prosecuted, cannot be compensated. Therefore that group needed their convictions overturning by the Court of Appeal, originally via the Criminal Cases Review Commission. After that, their compensation would naturally involve non-pecuniary compensation, something much harder to quantify.
This left the 555 postmasters whose settlement needed reopening. This took an approach to Treasury, which has to apply a value-for-money exercise whenever looking at any spending of taxpayers’ cash.
That seems bizarre at first sight when putting people’s lives back together, broken at the hands of a government-owned organisation. Nonetheless it was another process to wade through. Boris Johnson and Rishi Sunak got the need to act quickly and we secured approval. Another hurdle jumped.
Next, how to work out the settlement for the 555; the most vocal for totally understandable reasons. My solution was the opposite to that of Ed Davey a decade earlier, who had failed to challenge the Post office (which as the minister overseeing the company was his primary job). Whereas he refused to meet Alan Bates, I short-circuited the system by asking Lord Arbuthnot for Bates’ number. I called him and basically asked him how we can get this sorted.
That probably breaks a few ministerial rules, but I’ll live with that. We spoke with their solicitors, got the original legal funders to forgo their potential share of further money, and worked on a process that was acceptable to the 555.
This all took most of my 28 months before being moved to DLUHC, so I empathise with the time taken subsequently to get payments out of the door. This is no excuse not to keep acting with utmost urgency. After a summer of reshuffles, Hollinrake took over as Postal Affairs Minister. He has always been a champion of fair business, campaigning for protection for whistle-blowers.
Tracy Felstead was 17 when she went to work in Camberwell Green Post Office. She returned from holiday to be accused of stealing £11,503.28. Investigators told her family without her knowledge that if they paid back the money, she might be spared prison. They did. She wasn’t. She once walked into a cell where a prisoner was swinging having hanged themselves. Years later, she had to recount and relive this horror.
People like Tracy, Jo, Lee, Alan have been lied to, dismissed and abused by people in authority for two decades. Warm words won’t cut it. They need action. Their lives will always be defined by their treatment. They need life-changing compensation.
I welcome Hollinrake’s actions. Setting up a cross-party Compensation Advisory Board; independent oversight for each of the compensation routes; exploring how to get the convictions quashed in one go.
Quashing the convictions allows compensation. The inquiry can then focus on getting answers and we can hold people to account. I am pleased that Paula Vennells, the former Post Office CEO, has eventually responded in handing back her CBE. She, along with other senior Post Office managers and Fujitsu, who supplied Horizon, will have their day to account for their actions.
Government should not be rewarding egregious failure with honours and plum public service jobs. The taxpayers should be a financial backstop, not left on the hook to cover the hefty compensation bill. Answers, accountability and justice cannot come soon enough, but we’ll get there soon – if we remember we are human first, politician second.
Paul Scully is the Conservative MP for Sutton and Cheam, and a former Post Office minister.
Before Parliament broke for Christmas recess, Kevin Hollinrake spoke to a mainly empty chamber as he pushed through the Post Office (Horizon System) Compensation Bill.
This week he updated a packed chamber. The main difference? A compelling ITV drama, Mr Bates vs the Post Office, detailing the emotional, systematic dismantling of the lives of Alan Bates, Jo Hamilton, Lee Castleton and indeed, the tragic end of the life of Martin Griffiths.
These central characters were representative of more than 700 sub-postmasters convicted of theft or false accounting and thousands who lost significant amounts of money through the faulty Horizon software that the Post Office claimed was infallible.
The salience of any news story tends to be short, fuelled by emotive photos or footage. As the Israel-Hamas war continues, fewer people are talking about Ukraine, fewer still about Yemen, and next to no-one about Myanmar which is in the throes of a civil war. News cycles move on even if the events remain.
Journalists, notably the assiduous Nick Wallis, have covered the Horizon scandal, but it took the intense storytelling by writer Gwyneth Hughes, and incredible performances, to bring tears, anger and a deep sense of injustice to the British public.
The belated but welcome increase in attention by MPs is the same as some in the media and most of the public. They’re only human. And the Horizon scandal, from the devastation, the cover-up and the solution, is very much a human story.
The court case at the end of the series was not the end. The Post Office pushed Alan Bates and the other postmasters until they had effectively run out of money, forcing them to settle and resulting in most of their compensation going to their funders. Although they laid the path for others, they remain woefully out of pocket themselves. The wrongful convictions remained.
I became Business Minister in February 2020, just before lockdown. Postal Affairs was one part of a wide portfolio. I was told that the court case was a matter for the Post Office and the 555 postmasters who had received full and final settlement so government could not get involved; the judgement of Justice Fraser ran to hundreds of pages, so there was plenty from which lessons could be learnt.
That just didn’t pass muster, so I established an inquiry, originally on a non-statutory basis, to get swift justice and to ensure money was spent on compensating victims rather than lawyers. It soon became apparent that no less than a statutory footing would do.
Postmasters were powerless throughout the scandal. Restoring some power through compensation was prioritised, whilst answers were being sought. Those who lost money because of Horizon were able to apply to the Horizon Shortfall Scheme advertised by the Post Office; some threw in the towel before they were charged.
Convicted criminals, however unjustly prosecuted, cannot be compensated. Therefore that group needed their convictions overturning by the Court of Appeal, originally via the Criminal Cases Review Commission. After that, their compensation would naturally involve non-pecuniary compensation, something much harder to quantify.
This left the 555 postmasters whose settlement needed reopening. This took an approach to Treasury, which has to apply a value-for-money exercise whenever looking at any spending of taxpayers’ cash.
That seems bizarre at first sight when putting people’s lives back together, broken at the hands of a government-owned organisation. Nonetheless it was another process to wade through. Boris Johnson and Rishi Sunak got the need to act quickly and we secured approval. Another hurdle jumped.
Next, how to work out the settlement for the 555; the most vocal for totally understandable reasons. My solution was the opposite to that of Ed Davey a decade earlier, who had failed to challenge the Post office (which as the minister overseeing the company was his primary job). Whereas he refused to meet Alan Bates, I short-circuited the system by asking Lord Arbuthnot for Bates’ number. I called him and basically asked him how we can get this sorted.
That probably breaks a few ministerial rules, but I’ll live with that. We spoke with their solicitors, got the original legal funders to forgo their potential share of further money, and worked on a process that was acceptable to the 555.
This all took most of my 28 months before being moved to DLUHC, so I empathise with the time taken subsequently to get payments out of the door. This is no excuse not to keep acting with utmost urgency. After a summer of reshuffles, Hollinrake took over as Postal Affairs Minister. He has always been a champion of fair business, campaigning for protection for whistle-blowers.
Tracy Felstead was 17 when she went to work in Camberwell Green Post Office. She returned from holiday to be accused of stealing £11,503.28. Investigators told her family without her knowledge that if they paid back the money, she might be spared prison. They did. She wasn’t. She once walked into a cell where a prisoner was swinging having hanged themselves. Years later, she had to recount and relive this horror.
People like Tracy, Jo, Lee, Alan have been lied to, dismissed and abused by people in authority for two decades. Warm words won’t cut it. They need action. Their lives will always be defined by their treatment. They need life-changing compensation.
I welcome Hollinrake’s actions. Setting up a cross-party Compensation Advisory Board; independent oversight for each of the compensation routes; exploring how to get the convictions quashed in one go.
Quashing the convictions allows compensation. The inquiry can then focus on getting answers and we can hold people to account. I am pleased that Paula Vennells, the former Post Office CEO, has eventually responded in handing back her CBE. She, along with other senior Post Office managers and Fujitsu, who supplied Horizon, will have their day to account for their actions.
Government should not be rewarding egregious failure with honours and plum public service jobs. The taxpayers should be a financial backstop, not left on the hook to cover the hefty compensation bill. Answers, accountability and justice cannot come soon enough, but we’ll get there soon – if we remember we are human first, politician second.