Clarify best offer principle in HSSA guidance with examples
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 Department shall issue a supplementary document/announcement clarifying the meaning and intent of the "best offer" principle in the Horizon Shortfall Scheme Appeal (''HSSA'') process demonstrating how it is intended to operate in practice with appropriate examples, if thought necessary.
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 updated the HSSA guidance to clarify the meaning and intent of the "best offer" principle (Government response to the Post Office Horizon IT Inquiry report (volume 1), DBT, 9 October 2025).
- The Business and Trade Select Committee noted DBT updated the HSSA guidance as required (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. DBT has updated the HSSA guidance to clarify the meaning and intent of the "best offer" principle, demonstrating how it is intended to operate in practice with appropriate examples. Coordination is underway to ensure consistency with GLO scheme practices.
Department for Business and Trade · 9 Oct 2025 Written response →
Evidence trail — what's actually happened since
- 2 Mar 2026 DBT has updated the existing HSSA guidance and principles with this additional information. 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 →
- 6 Jan 2026 · Business and Trade Select Committee Business and Trade Select Committee noted DBT updated the HSSA guidance to clarify the "best offer" principle as required by this recommendation. View source → Confirmed Completed
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.