In a report released in March, the Business and Trade Committee of MPs expressed dissatisfaction with red tape and payment delays and advocated for an impartial third party to handle all aspects of the sub-postmasters’ claims.
It has also urged that the Post Office be completely withdrawn from participation in the three main compensation schemes, calling the existing redress process a “abject failure”.
However, the Department for Business and Trade (DBT) responded to the findings by stating: “Millions of dollars and months of work would be better spent on postmaster redress if a new body were to be established to replace these arrangements.”
DBT contended that cutting away the Post Office completely from the process would only cause more delays, even though it noted that decisions in redress cases were already made independently of the organization.
Due to malfunctions and mistakes in Fujitsu’s Horizon accounting system, which created the impression that money was missing from their branches, hundreds of sub-postmasters were falsely found guilty of theft.
