Sir Alan Bates: Post Office scandal compensation schemes are 'utter disasters'

He made the comments while giving evidence to the Public Accounts Committee of MPs in Parliament yesterday, alongside people representing victims of major scandals like infected blood.

The experts were speaking about whether Government compensation schemes were fit for purpose, and Sir Alan said: “They have caused so much grief.”

“Post Office schemes are often described as compensation,” he told MPs, “whereas the GLO scheme, which I went through, was actually intended to be a financial redress scheme, which included a proportion of compensation.

“It was meant to put people back in the position they were in had Post Office not done to them what they did.

“They were utter disasters to be quite frank, there are just so many reasons why they were wrong and why they have caused so much grief nowadays.”

Sir Alan is known for leading the campaign for victims who were wrongly prosecuted and convicted in the UK between 1999 and 2015 as a result of Horizon.

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.

Sir Alan, who was played by Toby Jones in the drama, ran a Post Office in Halifax before moving to North Wales.

The Department for Business and Trade recently said it was winding up the initial GLO scheme, which applied to Sir Alan and the first set of victims.

The Government said as of March 31, 90 per cent of GLO scheme claimants had received final redress, with £223m paid out to victims.

Post Office Minister Blair McDougall said: “The postmasters in the GLO group were the first to lead the charge for justice, and they deserve to see this chapter closed with the full and fair redress they are owed.

“Setting these deadlines is about making sure that happens.

“We are 90 per cent of the way there, and I am determined that the remaining claims are resolved quickly and fairly, with proper support for anyone who needs it.”

DBT said more than £1.5 billion had been paid out to Horizon victims since the summer of 2024.