Source · Select Committees · Business and Trade Committee
Recommendation 22
22
Accepted
Paragraph: 57
It is worrying to hear that many of the claims awarded so far may be...
Recommendation
It is worrying to hear that many of the claims awarded so far may be towards the low end of the compensation scale. To dispel any fears that Horizon victims are not being compensated fairly we recommend that the Government ask the Post Office to provide information showing the spread of average claims paid out so far with a commitment to sharing such details going forward to ensure transparency and trust in the Scheme. We also recommend that the Government is explicit about how BEIS and UKGI are providing oversight of the appropriateness of offers made to claimants.
Government response summary AI-generated
The government has committed to publishing information showing the spread of average claims paid out so far with a commitment to sharing such details going forward to ensure transparency and trust in the Scheme. BEIS oversight of the appropriateness of offers made to claimants takes place through approval of the Case Assessment Principles, the weekly case review process and consideration by a Director-led Steering Committee.
Summary of the government's response below — read the verbatim text to verify.
Paragraph Reference:
57
Government Response
Accepted
HM Government · verbatim extract
Accepted
The Government accepts the Committee’s recommendation. There have been 2,365 eligible claims to the Historical Shortfall Scheme. Each case is complex and unique, requiring specific examination of the details of the case and the circumstances in each. To support the aim of ensuring consistency and fairness of approach, the cases have been grouped into cohorts which share similar levels of complexity. To enable early progress, the first cohorts included the least complex cases and were generally lower value claims, which means that the awarded amounts are expected to be lower than those that will be made in later cohorts where more complex and substantial heads of loss are included. The Post Office now regularly publishes updates on their website on the progress being made with compensation as outlined in Recommendation 12 above.17 The Post Office is committed to continued transparency in its public reporting and management information provided to the Government – including, amongst many other things, the spread of average claims, which it will publish on its website and include in regular reports within appropriate governance packs within the Post Office itself and provided to BEIS and UKGI. 16 httpsn//corporate.postoffice.co.uk/en/historical-matters/historical-matters-progress/historical-shortfall-scheme- information-on-progress/ 17 httpsn//corporate.postoffice.co.uk/en/historical-matters/historical-matters-progress/historical-shortfall-scheme- information-on-progress/ The BEIS oversight of the appropriateness of offers made to claimants takes place through approval of the Case Assessment Principles, the weekly case review process and consideration by a Director-led Steering Committee as outlined in Recommendation 11 above. Recommendation 14: We recommend that POL shares details, with relevant examples, of how it takes the absence of information into account when it makes its initial recommendations for claims and how the Independent Panel reflects on such cases. We recommend that POL sets out how many claims have been refused by the Scheme or rejected by claimants, where an absence of information has been relevant. We also recommend that BEIS and UKGI confirm what safeguards it agreed when signing off the Scheme for cases were there was a lack of records.
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