Set deadline for HSS claims with guidance on late applications
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
No claims for financial redress under HSS shall be entertained after midnight 27 November 2025.
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 broadly accepted this recommendation on 9 October 2025 and closed the HSS to new claims on 31 January 2026, a later date than specified to allow adequate notice (Government response to the Post Office Horizon IT Inquiry report (volume 1), DBT, 9 October 2025).
- The Post Office issued reminder letters to outstanding claimants, and DBT published guidance on exceptional cases (Government response to the Post Office Horizon IT Inquiry report (volume 1), DBT, 9 October 2025).
- The Business and Trade Select Committee confirmed the HSS was closed to new claims on 31 January 2026 (Business and Trade Select Committee evidence session, January 2026).
Response — verbatim from government
●Department for Business and Trade
Department for Business and Trade broadly accepts this recommendation. HSS closes to new claims on 31 January 2026. Post Office is sending reminder letters to outstanding claimants. DBT will publish guidance on exceptional cases that may miss the deadline, with specified criteria for consideration of late applications.
Department for Business and Trade · 9 Oct 2025 Written response →
Evidence trail — what's actually happened since
- 2 Mar 2026 DBT broadly accepted this recommendation and agreed with the need for finality. The HSS was closed to new applications on 31 January 2026, with notice provided in advance of this date. The Post Office sent a reminder letter to claimants who had yet to respond, to reiterate the closure date. There may be some exceptional cases where claimants may have missed the deadline of 31 January for good reasons. DBT have worked with the Post Office to agree how to respond to applications received after the deadline. Guidance will be published shortly on the Post Office website for claimants. 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 heard the HSS would close to new claims on 31 January 2026, a later date than specified in this recommendation. Over 4,000 claimants were still awaiting final settlement across all schemes as of January 2026. 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.