Downing Street declines to commit to Sir Alan Bates’s redress payment deadline

Sir Keir Starmer responded to the campaigner’s request for assistance on Tuesday.

Former subpostmaster and lead campaigner Sir Alan Bates asked the Prime Minister for assistance a month ago (Stefan Rousseau/PA) (PA Archive)

The Prime Minister has responded to Sir Alan Bates’s requests for help with settling redress claims for those affected by the Horizon scandal, but Downing Street declined to commit to the campaigner’s suggested payment deadline.

Sir Alan told MPs that Sir Keir Starmer had not yet responded to his letter urging the PM to ask the Department for Business and Trade (DBT) to set a deadline of March next year for payments, but Downing Street confirmed hours later that a response had been sent.

The lead campaigner and former subpostmaster told the Business and Trade Committee’s short inquiry into securing “fast and fair redress” on Tuesday that he wrote to Sir Keir around a month ago asking for help.

Sir Alan was representing claimants from the 555 subpostmasters who took the Post Office to the High Court between 2017 and 2019 – also known as the GLO scheme.

He told MPs 70 of the GLO scheme claimants have died while compensation is being sorted out, with others now “well into their 80s… that are still suffering”.

The campaigner said he wrote to the PM again a few days ago “to remind him that I’d never received a response” to his initial letter.

Downing Street said “it was obviously right that we took the time to consider the issues raised in the letter”, adding: “What we don’t want to do is set an arbitrary cut-off date which could result in some claimants missing the deadline.”

Sir Alan said another campaign for justice in the courts was a consideration, adding: “I will not say I haven’t spoken to people about this.”

There are people well into their 80s now that are still suffering. They're still having to put up with this as well. They shouldn't. They really shouldn't

Sir Alan Bates

The PM’s official spokesman said approximately £438 million has been paid to more than 3,100 claimants across the four redress schemes as of October 31.

Committee chairman Liam Byrne asked Sir Alan: “Do you know when this is going to draw to a close?”

The former subpostmaster replied: “I wrote to the Prime Minister about a month ago.”

Mr Byrne interjected: “You did, you’ve written twice.”

Sir Alan continued: “I wrote to him initially about a month ago and I said that it should be finished, it needs to be finished, by the end of March 2025.

“A deadline should be set and we asked for his help in setting this deadline.

“I never received a response. I wrote to him a few days ago to remind him that I’d never received a response.

“Now, we’re at five months until the end of March 2025.”

Sir Alan added: “People have been waiting far too long, over 20-odd years, there’s over 70 that have died along the way in the GLO group.

“There are people well into their 80s now that are still suffering.

“They’re still having to put up with this as well. They shouldn’t. They really shouldn’t.”

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

Questioned on whether he would consider going “back to court with a crowdfunded campaign for justice”, Sir Alan said: “I would never say never. It is a consideration.

“I will not say I haven’t spoken to people about this, but I do know if we decide to go down that route, that we’re going to halt the current scheme, and it’s going to be at least another six, 12, or even 24 months before it moves forward in that direction.

“Now that might be a choice people are prepared to take.

“We’ve got a group meeting coming up in a few weeks’ time, and that’s one of the options that we’re going to discuss – that and a few other options as well.

“But we’ve got to move this forward.”

Sir Alan added: “It’s the deadlines that need to be set in this, they’re terrified of having deadlines set, the department.”

When asked why the PM had not responded to the letter from Sir Alan, 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.

“I think that response was issued earlier today. On the substance of the issue, the Government is committed to getting redress to those affected as quickly as possible and is doing all it can to increase the pace of redress across all schemes.”

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.”

Appearing alongside Sir Alan were former subpostmaster Dewi Lewis, who was jailed for four months after being wrongfully convicted of theft from his branch, and Jill Donnison, a claimant who worked in her late mother’s branch.

Ms Donnison criticised some of the questions she had been expected to answer as part of her efforts to seek compensation as “long-winded and impossible to answer”.

She said claimants were expected to know how much they had lost even though key data was missing from the records, with documents provided by the Post Office “practically illegible”.

“I was doing this on behalf of my mother who had passed away and it was just impossible to answer,” she said.

She described the Post Office’s expectation on claimants, which she said came without any offer of support, as “disgraceful”.

Mr Lewis cast doubt on whether he would have received a £200,000 payout, which was only sent after his appearance before the select committee was confirmed.

“Until last week we had no inkling of when we’d even get the initial payment. Lo and behold, it was announced that I was going to be in front of you… surprise surprise, Friday morning, the £200,000 had arrived. I try not to be cynical but I’m finding it very difficult,” he told MPs.

In the time since he was “strongly advised” to plead guilty to the wrongful charge, Mr Lewis said he had lost both his parents, been through a divorce and had to start taking medication for anxiety just “to get me through”.

“I served four months in Her Majesty’s Prison Altcourse. It was dreadful having to see mum and dad come in. I felt more awful for them than for myself. Having said that I was lucky. There were postmasters that had to go through far worse prisons than Altcourse,” he said.