Victims of the Post Office Horizon scandal have been urged to take legal action against the government over compensation delays.

In an email to victims seen by Sky News, Post Office campaigner Sir Alan Bates suggested it would be November 2027 before all the claims are finished based on the current rate of progress.

He told them going to court was “probably the quickest way to ensure fairness for all”.

Money: The UK areas where houses take just 19 days to sell

Hundreds of sub-postmasters were wrongfully prosecuted for theft and false accounting after Fujitsu-made accounting software Horizon inaccurately generated financial shortfalls, making it appear money was missing from Post Offices across the UK.

Many other sub-postmasters were made bankrupt, suffered ill health and experienced relationship breakdowns as a result of the falsely generated shortfalls and how the Post Office, a state-owned company, responded.

‘Lawyers taking every opportunity to challenge’

Compensation claims are processed through schemes administered by the Department of Business and Trade (DBT).

Sir Alan said one scheme in particular – the group litigation order (GLO) scheme for the 555 people who successfully took legal action against the Post Office and exposed the scandal – was “a mess”.

“Advice on how to streamline and speed up the scheme which has been offered to the DBT by ourselves, your lawyers and even the DBT Select Committee is ignored out of hand with the feeblest of excuses,” he said.

The government disputed the forecast by Sir Alan that it would take until 2027 for all claims to be settled and said it was “settling claims at a faster rate than ever before”.

The problem was not unique to the GLO scheme, Sir Alan said, saying administration and application problems beset all four plans for victims impacted in different ways by the miscarriage of justice.

The majority of applicants have had “substantially undervalued offers” from the government, Sir Alan said.

“The DBT lawyers appear to be taking every opportunity to challenge figures when the DBT has already paid for your lawyers to test and verify the claims before they are submitted.

“It appears that the DBT will pay out the smaller claims of about 60 to 80% of value, but the larger, which form the bulk of the outstanding claims, are continually being fought by DBT’s lawyers.”

Read more:
Sub-postmasters still going through hell, lead campaigner Sir Alan Bates says
Sir Alan Bates tells PM ‘clock is ticking’ on compensation for Horizon victims

More information is regularly sought from the victim, which Sir Alan said was “obviously not available” and delayed compensation offers.

“They also seem to be reducing offers by 50% where a spouse is involved, and it seems they will use almost any other tactic to ensure that the DBT does not have to pay out what has already been verified before the claim was submitted.”

Citing figures from the department, Sir Alan’s email said 66 cases had been fully settled in the last six months, with 210 yet to be settled.

The ‘quickest way to fairness’

Sir Alan suggested legal action was the “quickest way to ensure fairness for all”, though he acknowledged that “returning to the courts may seem to be a long haul”.

“There may be other options but the one which is repeatedly mentioned is a judicial review, not just for the GLO Scheme but to include all of the schemes to ensure there is parity in the way victims have, and are, being treated,” the email said.

A new legal action may be appropriate for people who have accepted offers, Sir Alan said, “a new legal action may well be a way of having your claim reassessed once more, this time by the courts”.

Victims from each scheme would need to come forward to move the campaign on, Sir Alan said, as he urged people to “step up”.

A national fundraising campaign may be needed to cover the costs of this action, the email added, which Sir Alan said he may be able to help set up.

The government had said in October 2023 it was “determined to deliver” the GLO scheme by August 2024 and last year rejected a March 2025 deadline sought by campaigners for all payments to be finalised.

“We will be able to get substantial redress paid out to those individuals by the end of March”, Post Office minister Gareth Thomas told the Commons in December.

Government ‘does not accept forecast’

Responding to Sir Alan’s suggestion it would take until 2027 to settle all claims, a government spokesperson said, “we do not accept this forecast”.

“The facts show we are making almost 90% of initial GLO offers within 40 working days of receiving completed claims. As of 31 March, 76% of the group had received full and final redress, or 80% of their offer.”

“So long as claimants respond reasonably promptly, we would expect to settle all claims by the end of this year.

“We have trebled the number of payments under this government and are settling claims at a faster rate than ever before to provide full and fair redress.”

Could a head lice infestation have led to the unravelling of a child rape gang that inflicted unspeakable horror?

Warning: This article contains graphic details of abuse

A paedophile ring, a mix of seven Glasgow men and women, operated in plain sight for seven years despite what may appear to be major red flags.

From 2012, a group of children, including some young enough to still be wearing nappies, were subjected to organised “rape nights” by drug users who plied them with alcohol and cocaine.

None of those present tried to help the children, who were all aged under 13. Instead, they clapped, filmed and paid for the abuse to continue.

One boy remembers hearing a “beep” indicating a timer when one rape would end, and another would begin.

This horror unfolded behind the doors of a dirty drug den – a ground-floor flat in a city suburb infested by insects, which was known as the “beastie house”.

The gang even forced the primary school-age children to eat dog food and abuse each other while their molesters crowded round to spectate.

They were shoved in microwaves and a locked fridge and freezer. One girl was hung by her clothes from a nail in the kitchen.

During the trial in 2023, which eventually saw the seven abusers each receive an order for lifelong restriction, judge Lord Beckett said the scandal plunged to the “depths of human depravity”.

The gang comprised Iain Owens, 46; Elaine Lannery, 40; Lesley Williams, 43; Paul Brannan, 42; Scott Forbes, 51; Barry Watson, 48 and John Clark, 48. They are all now in prison for a total of almost 100 years.

There are questions around how this could have happened in the first place.

The children were visited by social workers and even placed on the child protection register in 2018 before police cracked the case in 2020.

How can it be those youngsters, who were being regularly raped as part of an organised ring, could simultaneously sit on a register designed to prevent them from harm?

The High Court jury heard a selection of evidence from people who had concerns.

Police painstakingly worked through almost 1,000 pieces of evidence – so surely there would be someone willing to discuss the warning signs they spotted?

Sky News tracks down concerned witness

But nobody I encountered, from barbers to local shopkeepers, would speak. Until finally, I tracked down a man who had spoken to detectives as part of the investigation.

Speaking publicly for the first time, he revealed he saw the children regularly and recalled an evening where he spotted head lice on one girl and tried to arrange treatment.

“One of their hair was messy with head lice and because she was the same age as my child, I said ‘why won’t you do your hair’,” he said.

“She left them on her head to try and keep those beasts away from her. The head lice protected her from them.”

The man said he had concerns about how malnourished some of the victims were and described noticing the situation going “wrong” in 2018.

“They were always lingering around adults to try and get food. They were scavenging… It was heartbreaking,” he said.

“The system has failed.”

Sky News has learned concerns were raised with charities too. The actions of social workers, police and child protection services are now being investigated as part of an independent review.

These reviews are commonplace across Britain when serious harm or death is inflicted on a child.

Do reviews actually work?

But how effective are they when a commitment of “lessons will be learned” is then undone when the next tragedy comes along?

One former children’s commissioner for Scotland and leading child protection expert told Sky News the entire review process was being re-examined.

Tam Baillie said: “Learning reviews are important. The challenge for them is how effectively we implement the recommendations that come from reviews, as that is the bit that really counts.

“There is no point in doing the review unless it actively effects change in the system.”

Mr Baillie, who has 35 years of experience in child protection, said the public were right to ask questions about this case.

He said: “Currently, the process of learning reviews is being looked at so that we can make improvements to ensure we don’t keep looking at the same lessons coming up time and time again.”

Read more:
Victims were ‘failed’ by the system, Scottish government admits
Six members of paedophile gang to appeal convictions

The gang branded the children liars

I sat in the courtroom during the trial as the paedophiles, who were on bail at the time, laughed and joked in the dock between breaks.

Their sober performance when the jury was present was very different to their behaviour outside the confines of the High Court in Glasgow.

I have been reporting on criminal proceedings for almost 15 years and their boisterous conduct stands in stark contrast to other people accused of such serious crimes who seem to have more respect for the process.

As the Sky News team filmed their mask-covered faces entering and leaving court, they would yell obscenities and threaten to attack us.

One repeatedly shouted that the children were “liars”. The jury did not believe a word of it and found them guilty.

At the end of another gruelling day of evidence, two of the accused walked out to their waiting taxi and threatened to “batter” me. One of them lunged in our direction.

They were swiftly told to “shut up” and “get in” the car by the lingering police officers.

Days later, a jury convicted them of some of the most heinous crimes this country has ever seen.

Leading KC calls it quits after this case

One leading KC, Thomas Leonard Ross, who was involved in the trial, has told Sky News this case was a tipping point for him.

After working on 400 High Court cases, he is so traumatised he says he will never work on a sex abuse case again.

“It is the worst example of child abuse I have ever heard. It was awful to sit and listen to,” he said.

“You were left with the impression that these children were known to the social work department. It seemed surprising that steps hadn’t been taken to remove them from the scenario they were in earlier.

“Questions were raised, and I understand why the public are seeking answers to those questions.”

It is unclear when the independent review will report on its findings, but Glasgow City Council has told Sky News it will implement all recommendations in full.

A spokesperson said: “This is a uniquely complicated case involving unusually sensitive issues and a number of individuals, and our focus remains on supporting everyone involved in this process.”

There is a consensus these children were failed. But our investigation raises fresh questions about how Scotland’s largest paedophile gang managed to cause such prolonged pain.

The raw materials needed to keep the blast furnaces running at British Steel’s Scunthorpe plant will be delivered to the site today, the government has confirmed.

Ministers have been racing against time to secure the coking coal and iron ore needed to keep the furnaces at the UK’s last virgin steel-producing plant operating.

If they cool down too much, the molten iron solidifies and blocks the furnaces, making it extremely difficult and expensive to restart them.

Jonathan Reynolds, the business secretary, will visit the port in nearby Immingham as the supplies from two ships are unloaded and transported to the plant.

The Department for Business and Trade (DBT) said the materials had been provided by the US and would be enough to keep the furnaces running for weeks, while a third ship with coking coal and iron ore is on its way from Australia after a legal dispute between British Steel and the site’s Chinese owner Jingye was resolved.

The future of the British Steel plant at Scunthorpe had been hanging in the balance after Jingye decided to cancel future orders for the iron ore, coal and other raw materials needed to keep the furnaces running at the beginning of April.

After talks with the owner broke down, the government summoned MPs who had been away from Westminster for the Easter recess back to parliament to pass an emergency bill on Saturday to take over the facility.

The bill has brought the steelworks into effective government control, with the next step expected to be nationalisation.

Mr Reynolds said: “Thanks to the work of those at British Steel, and in my department, we have moved decisively to secure the raw materials we need to help save British Steel.

“Our industries depend on UK steel and – thanks to our plan for change – demand is set to shoot up: helping build the 1.5 million homes, railways, schools and hospitals we need to usher in a decade of national renewal.”

Jingye’s decision to cancel future orders of the raw materials needed to keep the furnaces running has led some to question whether the company might have purposefully attempted to shut the blast furnaces down.

While Downing Street said it was not aware of “sabotage” at the plant, it did acknowledge that it had become “clear” the Chinese owners “wanted to shut the blast furnaces” during talks.

Mr Reynolds said “it might not be sabotage, it might be neglect”, while Ms Rayner said there was “no evidence” of corporate sabotage.

However, the episode has sparked a debate about Chinese involvement in UK industries, with Mr Reynolds saying on Sunday that he “wouldn’t personally bring a Chinese company into our steel sector”.

The Chinese company stepped in with a deal to buy British Steel’s Scunthorpe plant out of insolvency five years ago.

Commenting on the situation for the first time on Monday, a Chinese embassy spokesperson urged the British government not to “politicise” the row by “linking it to security issues”, and to act with “fairness, impartiality and non-discrimination… to make sure the legitimate rights and interests of the Chinese company be protected”.

Read more:
Why has the government rescued British Steel
MP denied entry to Hong Kong speaks of her ‘chilling’ treatment

“It is an objective fact that British steel companies have generally encountered difficulties in recent years,” it added.

UK ministers have faced questions themselves over why they have only just acted on British Steel, given the fact that unions warned earlier this month that Jingye had decided to cancel future orders for the vital raw materials.

The Conservatives accused the government of acting “too late” and implementing a “botched nationalisation” after ignoring warnings about the risk to the steelworks.

Under the new legislation passed at the weekend, ministers now have the power to instruct British Steel to keep the plant in Scunthorpe open, order materials for steelmaking and instruct that workers be paid.

It also authorises a jail sentence of up to two years for anyone who breaches this law.