PM rejects Sir Alan Bates's deadline plea to settle postmaster claims

by · Mail Online

The Prime Minister has dismissed Sir Alan Bates' plea for a deadline to settle wrongly accused sub-postmasters' compensation claims - as the veteran campaigner publicly shamed Sir Keir Starmer into responding to his letters.

Sir Alan - who led the legal fight in which 555 sub-postmasters took the Post Office to the High Court and won in 2019 - revealed today he wrote to the PM a month ago urging the Department for Business and Trade (DbT) to resolve victims' claims by March 2025 but 'never received a response'.

Appearing before MPs on the Business and Trade Committee, the former sub-postmaster called for 'fast and fair redress' for victims of the Post Office Horizon IT scandal.

He said he wrote to Sir Keir a few days ago chasing a response to his original letter but had yet to receive a reply by this  afternoon.

His comments prompted Downing Street to issue an urgent update defending the delay in the Prime Minister's response; revealing a reply was sent to Sir Alan's letter earlier today.

Sir Alan - who led the legal fight in which 555 sub-postmasters took the Post Office to the High Court and won in 2019 - revealed today he wrote to the PM a month ago urging the Department for Business and Trade (DbT) to resolve victims' claims by March next year
Sir Alan said he wrote to Sir Keir Starmer a few days ago chasing a response to his original letter but had yet to receive a reply by this afternoon

The Prime Minister's official spokesman said: 'It was obviously right that we took the time to consider the issues raised in the letter to the Prime Minister, consider our response, make sure it was accurate and substantial and obviously we engaged with relevant departments to ensure that the Prime Minister's response was as full as possible.'

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But in a disappointing blow, the PM dismissed the veteran campaigner's call for a hard deadline by which victims of the Post Office scandal should have their claims settled.

The spokesman added: 'What we don't want to do is set an arbitrary cut-off date which could result in some claimants missing the deadline. We obviously don't want to put pressure on claimants and put them off contesting their claim.

'But each postmaster eligible for the GLO scheme should receive substantial redress by the end of March and we are doing everything we can to achieve that goal.'

But during the hearing, Sir Alan insisted: 'Deadlines do need to be set. You can't have an endless piece of string.

'People have been waiting far too long, over 20 odd years.

'There's over 70 that have died along the way in the GLO scheme [one of the four compensation schemes].

Appearing before MPs on the Business and Trade Committee, the former sub-postmaster called for 'fast and fair redress' for victims of the Post Office Horizon IT scandal

'There are people into their eighties now that are still suffering, they are still having to put up with this, they shouldn't.

'They really shouldn't.'

Asked if he would once more return 'to court with a crowdfunded campaign for justice', Sir Alan replied: 'I would never say never', revealing former sub-postmasters are due to meet in a 'few weeks' to discuss this and other options, adding: 'We've got to move this forward'.

More than 900 sub-postmasters were prosecuted between 1999 and 2015 after faulty Horizon accounting software made it look as though money was missing from their shops.