Government must 'revise' response to Post Office scandal investigation

After this, Post Office minister Gareth Thomas sent a letter to committee chair Liam Byrne MP announcing that since the general election the total amount of redress paid out had more than doubled.

He added that the Department for Business and Trade has taken responsibility from the Post Office for paying compensation to those whose wrongful convictions have been overturned.

However, today the Business and Trade Committee has taken the unusual step of asking the Government to "reflect and revise” its response, saying it fell short of what was needed.

It said more than 4,000 sub-postmasters are still waiting to settle claims, adding: “The human cost of the unacceptable delay in making these redress payments is considerable and starkly illustrated by the mounting number of former sub-postmasters who are dying before they receive an offer of redress.”

The committee of MPs praised the Government for “the substantial increase in redress payments”, but claimed it rejected changes to the scheme to provide the benefit of doubt to the sub-posters.

Mr Byrne said: “The new government has made extremely important progress in accelerating redress payment to the victims of the biggest miscarriage of justice in British legal history.

“But too many are still waiting too long, and former sub-postmasters are still dying before they receive justice. That is wrong.

“People who were, over years and years, disbelieved, bankrupt, criminalised, sent to prison, had their lives completely upended for wrongs that they did not commit, have experienced something akin to a second trial as they sought to clear their names and receive redress.

“The Government’s response to our recommendations is a start.

“But we respectfully ask ministers to listen harder to what the Committee has recommended, reflect again on what we proposed and re-submit its response to the Committee.

“We look forward to receiving a clearer signal for all those affected that meaningful justice will be served, and to seeing the plan from Government that will deliver it.”

More than 900 sub-postmasters were given criminal convictions after faulty Fujitsu accounting software made it appear as though money was missing from their shops.

Many more were left destitute, losing their homes and livelihoods, as the Post Office relentlessly pursued them, continually claiming there were no issues with its computer system.

Janet Skinner, who ran a Post Office in Hull, lost her job, her house and her reputation when she was jailed for supposedly missing £59,000. Her conviction, described as an “affront to justice”, has since been quashed.

The scandal has been described as the UK’s “biggest miscarriage of justice”, and burst into the public consciousness with the ITV drama called Mr Bates vs the Post Office starring Toby Jones.

A Government spokesperson said: “We share the committee’s commitment to delivering the redress postmasters across the UK deserve, which is why we’ve tripled the total amount of compensation paid since entering government and are settling claims at a faster rate than ever.

“We are working to ensure that affected people receive redress as quickly as possible and bringing the Overturned Convictions Scheme in house will help speed this up further.”