Post Office must be removed from its role handling compensation schemes for Horizon scandal victims, says MPs

THE Post Office must be removed from its role handling compensation schemes for the Horizon scandal victims, MPs say.

Payouts are not being handed out quickly enough, a report by the Business and Trade select committee said.

Figures show just £499million of the budgeted £1.8billion has so far been paid out.

Committee chairman Liam Byrne said the organisation had lost its grip on the situation.

He said: “What the Post Office says to us is that they’re trying to ensure that people get what they’re entitled to, but the bottom line is that people are now dying before they get justice, the process is that slow.

“So we just think the Post Office has lost its grip on this, but we just don’t think the Post Office is therefore the right organisation to be running any of these schemes.

“So that’s why we say the Post Office has got to be taken out of the system altogether.”

The MPs also raised concerns about the fees being paid to legal teams at the heart of the redress schemes.

Legal fees have made up £136 million of the cost of administering the Post Office-led schemes since 2020 – 27% of the actual compensation paid out.

A Post Office spokesman said last night: “Working alongside Government, we are focused on paying redress as swiftly as possible.”