Post Office should be removed from Horizon scandal compensation process, MPs demand
The Post Office should be removed from involvement in the Horizon scandal compensation processes, a committee of MPs has demanded while piling further pressure on its chief executive.
The Business and Trade Committee published recommendations for delivering faster and fuller payments to the hundreds of victims, describing efforts to deliver redress to date as an “abject failure”.
Chairman Liam Byrne said it was a “national disgrace” that “only £1 in £5 of the budget for compensation has been issued” to sub-postmasters to date and legally-binding timetables were needed to restore urgency and confidence.
The committee’s report stated the Post Office was “not fit for purpose to administer any of the schemes required to make amends”.
It blamed both victims’ lack of confidence in the firm and its “chaotic” leadership.
The MPs’ determinations were partly linked to a separate war of words playing out over conduct at the Post Office.
The focus on the sub-postmaster victims shifted last week when former Post Office chairman Henry Staunton, sacked by the business secretary in January, told the committee that an investigation believed to have focused on his own conduct was actually concentrated on chief executive Nick Read.
A letter by Mr Staunton to the committee, and released by the MPs, alleged that Mr Read was facing claims of bullying and sexism by a senior member of staff.
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Staunton says investigation was made into Nick Read
He also cast doubts again on Mr Read’s assertion, in front of the committee, that he had not threatened to resign.
Mr Staunton claimed Mr Read was particularly unhappy over his salary and dismissed conduct questions against himself as “flimsy”.
The committee is expected to consider whether to publish a document, pledged by the Post Office, that is understood to include the details of the allegations against Mr Read.
In its findings against the Post Office on Thursday, the committee expressed a lack of confidence in his leadership.
“Mr Read has supplied misleading evidence to the committee on at least two counts, relating to the Post Office’s use of,
first, non-disclosure agreements and, secondly, public relations firms.
“The Post Office is not fit for purpose to administer any of the schemes of redress required to make amends for one of the biggest miscarriages of justice in British history”, it noted.
It called on the government to create a “properly resourced” independent intermediary that would offer legal and forensic accounting services to victims to ensure victims are equipped with all the facts and figures they need to secure fair redress and compensation.
Other measures recommended by the report included removing a cap on legal expenses for sub-postmasters and a standardised set of tariffs to help victims to better estimate what they are entitled to.
The findings largely follow the issues raised with the committee by Alan Bates, the former sub-postmaster whose experience formed the basis of the TV drama that brought their plight firmly back to public attention.
Between 1999 and 2015, more than 700 were prosecuted after faulty accounting software provided by Fujitsu made it seem like money was missing from their branches.
A professional footballer has been jailed for causing the death of a cyclist in a car crash.
Mansfield Town forward Lucas Akins crashed into Adrian Daniel in his Mercedes G350 in Huddersfield on 17 March 2022, while taking his daughter to a piano lesson.
Leeds Crown Court heard that Mr Daniel, 33, suffered catastrophic head injuries and died 10 days later.
Akins, 36, played in Mansfield’s 0-0 draw with Wigan on 4 March, hours after pleading guilty at Leeds Crown Court to death by careless or inconsiderate driving.
The footballer has continued to play for Mansfield since the incident.
Judge Alex Menary said on Thursday that he had considered imposing a suspended sentence, but had concluded that only an immediate sentence of 14 months’ imprisonment was appropriate.
Mansfield Town’s Akins. Pic: George Wass/PPAUK/Shutterstock
A spokesperson for Mansfield Town FC said it “acknowledges” the court’s decision and offered the club’s “sincere and deepest condolences to the family of Adrian Daniel at this difficult time”.
“The club is considering its position with regards to Lucas and will be making no further comment at this stage,” the spokesperson added.
‘Like hell’
Prosecuting, Carmel Pearson said it was a “difficult junction to emerge from” but that the defendant “did not stop at the give-way sign”.
Savanna Daniel, Mr Daniel’s wife, told the court it had been “like hell and a nightmare [she is] not waking up from”.
“There was no reason for Adrian to be killed that way,” she said, adding it was “too simple a collision to have taken a life”.
Adrian Daniel. Pic: West Yorkshire Police/PA
Mrs Daniel said she did not want Akins’s children growing up without their father as she did not want “any more lives to be destroyed from this”, but she criticised the defendant for failing to plead guilty at an earlier stage.
Tim Pole, representing Akins, said he was “fundamentally a decent, honest and hard-working individual”.
“I want to publicly apologise on his behalf,” he said.
Mr Pole added that Akins understood Mrs Daniel’s “frustration and anger” over the time it took him to plead guilty.
Handing down his sentence, the judge accepted that Akins’s remorse was genuine but by not admitting to the offence at an earlier stage, he had prolonged Mrs Daniel’s “heartache and grief”.
After the sentencing, Mrs Daniel said “three years of hell” had come to a close, in a statement via West Yorkshire Police.
She said Akins had made a “farce” of the justice system and that his failure to plead guilty sooner “makes a mockery of any remorse that Akins offers for his actions”.
Akins, who has played for Mansfield Town since 2022 and was previously with clubs including Huddersfield Town, Tranmere Rovers and Burton Albion, was also suspended from driving for 12 months.
Much of the UK will bask in warm, sunny conditions at the start of next week, with inland temperatures up to 10C higher than average, but it’s a mixed picture before then.
The first half of spring brought warmth and sunshine for many, but the last 10 days have been more changeable.
Some areas of Ireland, Northern Ireland, southwest Wales, and southwest England have seen much-needed rainfall, whereas parts of northern Britain have observed very little.
See the latest weather forecast where you are
Warm, sunny conditions, such as those in Harrogate on Thursday, are expected at the start of next week. Pic: PA
Tyne and Wear in northeast England has recorded just 7% of its average April rainfall, whereas Cornwall in the southwest of the country has already seen 156%.
And the Milford Haven rain gauge in Wales has seen over twice its average April rainfall.
There’ll be more rain over the next few days, mainly in the West, but it looks like high pressure will settle things down from Sunday.
Temperatures will rise too, becoming widely above average on Monday and Tuesday.
Highs of 22C (72F) to 24C (75F) can be expected.
The highest temperature of the year so far is 24C (75F), seen at Northolt in northwest London on Saturday 12 April.
The settled conditions will bring plenty of sunshine, with UV levels expected to be around moderate.
Tree pollen levels will be high in the South, low to moderate in the North.
What happens from next Wednesday onwards is unclear.
A thundery breakdown is possible from the South, or wet and windy conditions may move in from the North West.
Other computer models suggest high pressure will hold on, with the fine weather continuing and potentially higher temperatures.
The last time that 25C (77C) was reached in April was during the COVID-19 lockdown in 2020.
The highest temperature ever recorded in April was 29.4C (85F), seen at Camden Square in London on 16 April 1949.
All this means that it will be quite warm for the London Marathon, which will take place this Sunday.
Temperatures will be around 11-12C (52-54F) at the start, potentially peaking at a warm 22C (70F).
That’s a little off the highest temperature ever recorded for the race, which stands at 24.2C (76F) seen at St James’s Park in 2018.
But it will be a lot higher than the 12.6C (55F) seen last year.
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It’ll be dry for runners and spectators, with sunny spells and light winds.
Competitors in the Manchester Marathon on Sunday will face similar conditions to London’s runners; it should be dry with sunny spells. The temperature first thing will be around 9C (48F), but it’ll warm up with a high of about 19C (66F).
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