Post Office scandal back in spotlight as MPs grill Fujitsu bosses and wronged sub-postmasters
The Post Office scandal will be back in the spotlight today, when MPs hear evidence from a number of witnesses including campaigner and wronged sub-postmaster Alan Bates.
Mr Bates, whose story inspired the ITV hit drama Mr Bates vs the Post Office, will appear in front of parliament’s Business and Trade Committee alongside other figures, including business minister Kevin Hollinrake and representatives from Fujitsu, which developed Horizon, the faulty IT system at the heart of the scandal.
MPs on the committee will quiz the witnesses about the process for delivering fair and timely compensation for the victims of the scandal, which occurred between 1999 and 2015.
What is the scandal about?
The Post Office Horizon IT scandal saw more than 700 sub-postmasters and mistresses convicted after faulty Fujitsu software made it appear as though money was missing from their branches.
Last Wednesday Rishi Sunak confirmed that all victims of the IT scandal will have their convictions quashed under fast-tracked legislation after growing pressure to take more serious action.
Number 10 also confirmed that sub-postmasters and sub-postmistresses would be eligible for a £75,000 upfront payment with the new law, but acknowledged that would not be sufficient for everyone.
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Post Office victim: ‘I was spat on’
The move was prompted by the TV drama, Mr Bates Vs The Post Office, which chronicled the campaigners’ two-decade fight for justice and detailed the poor treatment they received at the hands of their employer.
Mr Sunak said last week that the government had paid almost £150m in compensation to over 2,500 victims and pledged that victims would be “swiftly exonerated and compensated”.
Who is appearing before the committee?
Among those who will give evidence to MPs today is Alan Bates, a key member of Justice For Sub-postmasters Alliance whom the ITV drama was named after.
Mr Bates, who was played by the actor Toby Jones in the drama, was one one of six lead claimants in the original court battle with the Post Office. He believes he was dismissed because he flagged up problems with the Horizon system.
Speaking to Sky News ahead of his questioning by MPs, Mr Bates said he had “one concern – and it’s to get the compensation right – that’s it.
“They should be moving heaven and earth to get it done and get it done fast.”
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‘The whole thing is unbelievable’
He will appear alongside Jo Hamilton, who was played by Monica Dolan and whose story also featured heavily in the series.
The sub-postmistress in South Warnborough, Hampshire, previously told Sky News of the pressure she faced to plead guilty and how she felt “backed into a corner”.
“I felt I had a gun held to my head and had no choice,” added Ms Hamilton.
“They said if I pleaded guilty to false accounting and paid the £36,000 shortfall, they would drop the theft charge.
“I was so terrified of going to prison, I couldn’t think of anything else. It was terrifying.”
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‘They made me look like a criminal’
Crucially, the committee will also hear from Paul Patterson, the chief executive of Fujitsu’s Europe arm – the first time an executive has answered questions on the scandal – and Nick Read the current chief executive of the Post Office.
Other witnesses include Dr Neil Hudgell, executive chairman of Hudgell Solicitors, the firm which represented 74 people who have already had their convictions quashed.
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Lord Arbuthnot of Edrom, the Tory peer and former MP who has campaigned on behalf of the sub-postmasters for nearly 15 years, will also give evidence.
Postal services minister Kevin Hollinrake – who has argued that figures at the Post Office who are found to be responsible for the scandal should be jailed as the “ultimate deterrent” – will also appear before MPs, as will Carl Cresswell, director of business resilience at the Department for Business and Trade.
What is happening at the Post Office inquiry hearing?
Separately, the Post Office Horizon IT inquiry will continue in London and will hear from Rajbinder Sangha, the release management coordinator of Fujitsu Services and former member of Fujitsu’s fraud and litigation support office.
A statutory inquiry opened in 2021 into what has been described as the “worst miscarriage of justice in recent British legal history”.
On Thursday at the inquiry, former investigator Stephen Bradshaw, who was involved in the criminal investigation of nine sub-postmasters, denied he and others “behaved like mafia gangsters” in the criminal probe of several sub-postmasters.
Sky News can reveal that the government has rowed back on a national compensation scheme for victims of child sexual abuse, despite it being promised under the previous Conservative administration.
Warning – this story contains references to sexual and physical abuse
A National Redress Scheme was one of 20 key recommendations made by the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA), but a Home Office report reveals the government has scrapped it because of the cost.
Marie, who is 71, suffered alleged sexual, physical, and emotional abuse at Greenfield House Convent in St Helens, Merseyside, between 1959 and 1962, and is still fighting for compensation.
Greenfield House Convent, where Marie says she was abused
As soon as she arrived as a six-year-old, Marie says her hair was cut off, her name changed, and she experienced regular beatings from the nuns and students.
She claims a nun instigated the violence, including when Marie was held down so that her legs were “spread-eagled” as she was sexually abused with a coat hanger.
Merseyside Police investigated claims of abuse at the convent, but in 2016, a suspect died before charges could be brought.
Marie has received an apology from the Catholic body that ran the home; she tried to sue them, but her claim was rejected because it was filed too long after the alleged abuse.
Marie, 71, is still fighting for compensation for the abuse she says she suffered as a child
In February, ministers said the law would change for victims of sexual abuse trying to sue institutions for damages, which was a recommendation from the IICSA.
Previously, people had to make a civil claim before they were 21, unless the victim could prove a fair trial could proceed despite the time lapse.
Campaigners argued for the time limit to be removed as, on average, victims wait 26 years to come forward. Changes to the 1980 Limitation Act could lead to more people making claims.
Peter Garsden, President of The Association of Child Abuse Lawyers
Civil cases ‘can take three to five years’
But Peter Garsden, president of the Association of Child Abuse Lawyers, worries that when it comes to historical abuse where the defendant is dead, institutions will still argue that it is impossible to have a fair trial and will fight to have the case thrown out of court.
Mr Garsden said it takes “between three and five years” for a civil case to get to trial.
He warned that claimants “can end up losing if you go through that process. Whereas the Redress Scheme would be quicker, much more straightforward, and much more likely to give justice to the victims”.
Victim awarded £10 compensation
Jimbo, who was a victim of abuse at St Aidan’s children’s home in Cheshire, took his case to the High Court twice and the Court of Appeal three times, but, after 13 years, all he ended up with was £10 for his bus fare to court.
Despite the Lord Justice of Appeal saying he believed that the abuse had occurred, Jimbo lost his claim because of the time limit for child sexual abuse claims to be made.
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Neither Marie nor Jimbo is likely to benefit from the removal of the time limit for personal injury claims, which is why Mr Garsden is calling on the government to implement a National Redress Scheme for victims of sexual abuse, as recommended by the IICSA.
Hundreds of millions paid to victims
The governments in Scotland and Northern Ireland have set up compensation schemes and paid hundreds of millions of pounds to victims.
In 2023, the then Conservative government said a similar scheme would be organised for England and Wales.
But the Home Office admitted in its Tackling Child Sexual Abuse: Progress Update that it “is not currently taking forward any further steps on the IICSA proposal for a separate, national financial redress scheme for all survivors of child sexual abuse”.
“In the current fiscal environment, this recommendation is very difficult to take forward,” it added.
For victims, the scheme was the last chance of compensation for a lifetime blighted by abuse.
“The money is about justice and about all the other people who have had to suffer this abuse,” Marie said.
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