Make monitoring full and fair compensation a core Board duty
Post Office Horizon Inquiry · First Interim Report: Compensation · Issued 17 July 2023 · Addressed to: Department for Business and Trade
Source — verbatim from the inquiry
●Inquiry recommendation
It must be one of the core duties of the Horizon Compensation Advisory Board that it monitors whether compensation payments are full and fair.
Post Office Horizon Inquiry, First Interim Report: Compensation · 17 Jul 2023 Source PDF →
Published evidence summary
Publicly available evidence relating to this recommendation:
- The Horizon Compensation Advisory Board continues to monitor whether compensation payments are fair across all schemes (Horizon Compensation Advisory Board published reports, ongoing).
- The Business and Trade Select Committee heard evidence from the Advisory Board on its monitoring activities (Business and Trade Select Committee evidence session, January 2026).
Response — verbatim from government
●Department for Business and Trade
Department for Business and Trade accepts this recommendation in part. The Department endorses the Board's view that it "would not be possible or advisable for us to intervene in individual cases" but has confirmed that monitoring overall fairness is a core duty.
Department for Business and Trade · 21 Sep 2023 Written response →
Evidence trail — what's actually happened since
- 31 Jan 2026 Verification: Interim report recommendations largely implemented through Post Office (Horizon System) Compensation Act 2024 and scheme operational changes. HSS closing date set as 31 January 2026. Sir Gary Hickinbottom appointed to oversee scheme fairness. Source →
- 21 Sep 2023 · Department for Business and Trade Government response: Accepted in part. Department for Business and Trade accepts this recommendation in part. The Department endorses the Board's view that it "would not be possible or advisable for us to intervene in individual cases" but... Source →
- 1 Jan 2026 · Horizon Compensation Advisory Board The Horizon Compensation Advisory Board continues to monitor whether compensation payments are fair and timely across all schemes. Business and Trade Select Committee examined the adequacy of the Board's monitoring role at its January 2026 session. View source → Reasonable Progress
Each entry above links to a primary source — gov.uk written statement, consultation response document, or inspection report. The Index does not characterise government intent; it tracks what has been published.
How this page is built
Source and Response are verbatim from primary documents. The Evidence trail records published activity since — written statements, consultation outcomes, inspection findings, parliamentary references. The Index does not paraphrase or characterise intent; it tracks what has been published. Where the evidence is the absence of action (a missed deadline, a slipped timetable), that absence is documented from primary sources rather than inferred.
This recommendation's data is verified periodically against primary sources. The Index is monitored for staleness weekly.