Capture: Victims of second Post Office scandal to receive ‘recognition’ payments before compensation
The government will give ‘recognition’ payments to Post Office Capture victims before they receive full compensation.
Former sub-postmasters and their families who are entitled to redress have been told the initial amount, which is yet to be finalised, could be £10,000.
Capture was a faulty computer system used by sub postmasters in the 1990s – before the Horizon scandal.
A report last year found the software is likely to have caused errors in accounting.
A redress scheme is currently being set up for those affected and could possibly be introduced by the end of the summer.
Steve Marston, a Capture user who was convicted of stealing from his Post Office in 1996, describes “quite a lot of progress” at a government meeting but raised concerns over pace.
He told Sky News: “I’m more than happy that the compensation scheme is going to be put in place as quickly as possible.
“None of us are guaranteed how long we’re going to be here. We just want people to see recognition as soon as possible.”
Steve Marston with his wife Jan
Ken Tooby’s late wife June was a Capture victim. Ken is seriously ill in hospital so his family has sent a plea to the government to “sort this Capture business asap”.
June Tooby represented herself in court in 2003 and challenged the Post Office over its “faulty” software system.
The evidence she compiled led to the Kroll investigation into Capture concluding there was a “reasonable likelihood” the software caused accounting errors.
Another victim, who wanted to remain anonymous, told Sky News he was “frustrated” at the slow progress of redress, describing it as “like pulling teeth”.
He also raised concerns over interim payments potentially being “too low”, claiming the government may be trying to “keep people sweet”.
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PO miscarriages of justice cases ‘double’
The Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC), meanwhile, is currently investigating 28 convictions and it’s hoped decisions will be made over whether to refer cases to the Court of Appeal by the end of the year.
Neil Hudgell, lawyer for Capture victims, said there was a “positive dialogue” at the latest meeting between government officials and families.
“The real frustration is the time it takes because of the processes that are involved,” he said. “I can see why it would take as long as it has.
“But [victims] just want peace and to see the end of it… There’s a real acute need to bring matters to a close.”
On timescales, he said there were “no guarantees” but a “guesstimate” was that redress will start “to flow… in the second half of the year”.
Mr Hudgell said he would be “disappointed” if conviction cases have not been progressed by the CCRC by this autumn.
“I don’t under emphasise the amount of work they’ve got – it involves multiple cases… I think they’ve got enough evidence now to start to formulate a decision,” he said.
A Department for Business and Trade spokesperson said: “Postmasters have already endured immeasurable suffering, and we continue to listen to those who have been sharing their stories on the Capture system.
“Ensuring postmasters are treated with dignity and respect is our absolute priority.
“Officials met with postmasters [on Wednesday] as part of our commitment to develop an effective and fair redress process for those affected by Capture.
“We will continue to update on the development of the redress mechanism as it progresses.”
The UK-US trade deal has been signed and is “done”, US President Donald Trump has said as he met Sir Keir Starmer at the G7 summit.
The US president told reporters in Canada: “We signed it, and it’s done. It’s a fair deal for both. It’ll produce a lot of jobs, a lot of income.”
Sir Keir said the document “implements” the deal to cut tariffs on cars and aerospace, describing it as a “really important agreement”.
“So this is a very good day for both of our countries – a real sign of strength,” the prime minister added.
Mr Trump added that the UK was “very well protected” against any future tariffs, saying: “You know why? Because I like them”.
However, he did not say whether levies on British steel exports to the US would be set to 0%, saying “we’re gonna let you have that information in a little while”.
Mr Trump also praised Sir Keir as a “great” prime minister, adding: “We’ve been talking about this deal for six years, and he’s done what they haven’t been able to do.”
He added: “We’re very longtime partners and allies and friends and we’ve become friends in a short period of time.
“He’s slightly more liberal than me to put it mildly… but we get along.”
Sir Keir added that “we make it work”.
As the pair exited a mountain lodge in the Canadian Rockies where the summit is being held, Mr Trump held up a physical copy of the trade agreement to show reporters.
Several leaves of paper fell from the binding, and Sir Keir quickly stooped to pick them up, saying: “A very important document.”
Sir Keir Starmer picks up paper from the UK-US trade deal after Donald Trump dropped it at the G7 summit. Pic: Reuters
The US president also appeared to mistakenly refer to a “trade agreement with the European Union” at one point as he stood alongside the British prime minister.
Mr Trump announced his “Liberation Day” tariffs on countries in April. At the time, he announced 10% “reciprocal” rates on all UK exports – as well as separately announced 25% levies on cars and steel.
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In a joint televised phone call in May, Sir Keir and Mr Trump announced the UK and US had agreed on a trade deal – but added the details were being finalised.
Ahead of the G7 summit, the prime minister said he would meet Mr Trump for “one-on-one” talks, and added the agreement “really matters for the vital sectors that are safeguarded under our deal, and we’ve got to implement that”.
Whitehall officials tried to convince Michael Gove to go to court to cover up the grooming scandal in 2011, Sky News can reveal.
Dominic Cummings, who was working for Lord Gove at the time, has told Sky News that officials in the Department for Education (DfE) wanted to help efforts by Rotherham Council to stop a national newspaper from exposing the scandal.
In an interview with Sky News, Mr Cummings said that officials wanted a “total cover-up”.
Politics latest: Grooming gangs findings unveiled
The revelation shines a light on the institutional reluctance of some key officials in central government to publicly highlight the grooming gang scandal.
In 2011, Rotherham Council approached the Department for Education asking for help following inquiries by The Times. The paper’s then chief reporter, the late Andrew Norfolk, was asking about sexual abuse and trafficking of children in Rotherham.
The council went to Lord Gove’s Department for Education for help. Officials considered the request and then recommended to Lord Gove’s office that the minister back a judicial review which might, if successful, stop The Times publishing the story.
Lord Gove rejected the request on the advice of Mr Cummings. Sources have independently confirmed Mr Cummings’ account.
Education Secretary Michael Gove in 2011. Pic: PA
Mr Cummings told Sky News: “Officials came to me in the Department of Education and said: ‘There’s this Times journalist who wants to write the story about these gangs. The local authority wants to judicially review it and stop The Times publishing the story’.
“So I went to Michael Gove and said: ‘This council is trying to actually stop this and they’re going to use judicial review. You should tell the council that far from siding with the council to stop The Times you will write to the judge and hand over a whole bunch of documents and actually blow up the council’s JR (judicial review).’
“Some officials wanted a total cover-up and were on the side of the council…
“They wanted to help the local council do the cover-up and stop The Times’ reporting, but other officials, including in the DfE private office, said this is completely outrageous and we should blow it up. Gove did, the judicial review got blown up, Norfolk stories ran.”
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Grooming gangs victim speaks out
The judicial review wanted by officials would have asked a judge to decide about the lawfulness of The Times’ publication plans and the consequences that would flow from this information entering the public domain.
A second source told Sky News that the advice from officials was to side with Rotherham Council and its attempts to stop publication of details it did not want in the public domain.
One of the motivations cited for stopping publication would be to prevent the identities of abused children entering the public domain.
There was also a fear that publication could set back the existing attempts to halt the scandal, although incidents of abuse continued for many years after these cases.
Sources suggested that there is also a natural risk aversion amongst officials to publicity of this sort.
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Mr Cummings, who ran the Vote Leave Brexit campaign and was Boris Johnson’s right-hand man in Downing Street, has long pushed for a national inquiry into grooming gangs to expose failures at the heart of government.
He said the inquiry, announced today, “will be a total s**tshow for Whitehall because it will reveal how much Whitehall worked to try and cover up the whole thing.”
He also described Mr Johnson, with whom he has a long-standing animus, as a “moron’ for saying that money spent on inquiries into historic child sexual abuse had been “spaffed up the wall”.
Asked by Sky News political correspondent Liz Bates why he had not pushed for a public inquiry himself when he worked in Number 10 in 2019-20, Mr Cummings said Brexit and then COVID had taken precedence.
“There are a million things that I wanted to do but in 2019 we were dealing with the constitutional crisis,” he said.
The Department for Education and Rotherham Council have been approached for comment.
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