Grant appropriate powers to HSS senior lawyer
Post Office Horizon Inquiry · Post Office Horizon IT Inquiry: Final Report · Issued 8 July 2025 · Addressed to: Department for Business and Trade
Source — verbatim from the inquiry
●Inquiry recommendation
The appointed person shall be given appropriate powers to ensure that these tasks can be performed and carried into effect. If it is considered necessary by the appointing authority, it should consult with the Advisory Board, Dentons, Sir Gary Hickinbottom, Sir Ross Cranston and an appropriate number of claimants' representatives (as well as its own advisors) before determining the appropriate powers.
Post Office Horizon Inquiry, Post Office Horizon IT Inquiry: Final Report · 8 Jul 2025 Source PDF →
Published evidence summary
Publicly available evidence relating to this recommendation:
- The Department for Business and Trade accepted this recommendation on 9 October 2025 and committed to consulting Sir Ross Cranston, the Advisory Board, Dentons, claimants' legal representatives, and the Post Office to determine the appropriate powers (Government response to the Post Office Horizon IT Inquiry report (volume 1), DBT, 9 October 2025).
- Full details on the scope of the role of the Independent Senior Lawyer were subsequently published on GOV.UK (Progress update, DBT, March 2026).
- The Business and Trade Committee report HC 1598 found that despite powers being granted, fully-assessed HSS offers remain routinely undervalued (Business and Trade Committee, HC 1598, March 2026).
Response — verbatim from government
●Department for Business and Trade
Department for Business and Trade accepts this recommendation and has committed to consulting stakeholders to determine the appropriate powers for the appointed person. This consultation includes Sir Ross Cranston, the Advisory Board, claimants' representatives, Post Office, and DBT's own advisors.
Department for Business and Trade · 9 Oct 2025 Written response →
Evidence trail — what's actually happened since
- 2 Mar 2026 Full details on the scope of the role of the Independent Senior Lawyer have been published on https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/horizon-shortfall-scheme-independent-senior-lawyer-scope-of-work/horizon-shortfall-scheme-independent-senior-lawyer-scope-of-work The document reflects consultation with Sir Ross Cranston, the Horizon Compensation Advisory Board, Dentons, claimants' legal representatives and the Post Office. Source →
- 31 Jan 2026 Verification: Government published formal response to Volume 1 recommendations on 13 October 2025, accepting 17 of 18 recommendations. Total compensation paid across all schemes: £1.38 billion as of December 2025. Volume 2 of Final Report expected 2026. Source →
- 13 Mar 2026 · Business and Trade Committee HC 1598 HC 1598 found that despite powers being granted to the HSS senior lawyer, fully-assessed HSS offers remain routinely undervalued with major disparities between initial HSS offers and eventual HSSA awards. The committee concluded the HSS is "broken" for complex claims and recommended transferring remaining cases to DBT. View source → Mixed Findings
- 6 Jan 2026 · Business and Trade Select Committee Business and Trade Select Committee questioned what powers had been conferred on the HSS Senior Lawyer to ensure fair first offers. DBT stated it was consulting stakeholders on the appropriate powers. 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.