Post Office scandal victims will wait until the end of 2024 for compensation scheme improvements or the matter will “move back to courts”, Sky News understands.
A newsletter sent by Sir Alan Bates to members of the Group Litigation Order (GLO) scheme states that “if nothing has greatly improved” on redress then a “specialist law firm” will be called in.
The GLO scheme was set up for former sub-postmasters after they won their High Court battle against the Post Office in 2019.
Post Office scandal – latest updates
Hundreds were wrongly accused of stealing from branches between 1999 and 2015 after faulty Horizon software caused erroneous accounting shortfalls.
Sir Alan’s circular summarised a recent meeting of victims during which it was agreed that without improvements, a “deadline”, or a “date for the end” of the compensation scheme, then another meeting would take place in mid-January.
He wrote: “At which time, a specialist law firm will be invited to address the group on how we can swiftly move this whole matter back to the courts to resolve.
“This might also involve the other schemes as well as our own, and it would mean we would have to fundraise once again, but this time nationally and I have no doubt we could raise the money required.”
The newsletter also highlighted that the “merits and drawbacks” of other “legal avenues” were discussed by members of the Justice for Sub-postmasters Alliance (JFSA).
The meeting heard that the “greater majority” of more than 150 victims who attended were “still awaiting or yet to agree their final settlements”.
Sir Alan has written to the prime minister twice in the last two months asking him to set a March 2025 deadline for all GLO claims.
In his newsletter, Sir Alan says the response from Sir Keir Starmer “only contained the standard civil service platitudes which mean nothing and basically stated that they would carry on as usual, i.e. same old, same old.
“There may have been a change of political party in power, but the civil service never changes, and we all know who is really in charge of government.”
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Sir Alan also described “similarities” between the findings of the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman (PHSO) on the Windrush compensation scheme and the problems experienced by GLO Scheme victims.
The PHSO found that the Home Office Scheme was making wrong decisions and refusing payment to those entitled to it.
Sir Alan stated that following a recent meeting with the PHSO victims, they “may well have strong grounds to bring a new complaint against the Department for Business and Trade”.
A government spokesperson said: “This government has taken significant steps to increase the speed of redress payments and will continue to listen to subpostmasters about what they need from the schemes.
“Since July we have taken swift action to launch the new Horizon Convictions Redress Scheme and announced a new appeals process in the Horizon Shortfall Scheme in order to give postmasters the chance to have their settlements independently reviewed.
“At the end of October, approximately £438m has been paid to over 3,100 claimants across four schemes, up 85% since the end of June.
“We are also making 90% of initial GLO offers within 40 working days of receiving completed claims and we encourage the 186 people who have not yet sent us complete claims to come forward as soon as possible to claim back what they are owed.”
