Falsely convicted postal workers must be ‘fully compensated’, says MP committee

Linda Stewart — Fri, 18 Feb 2022 10:15:20 +0000

The Post Office and the government need to speed up compensation payments to workers who were victims of the Horizon IT scandal,a report by an influential group of MPs has advised.

MPs from Parliament’s Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) committee have expressed concerns about the time taken to make settlements to former Post Office operators who were wrongfully convicted as a result of errors in the company’s computer accounting system.

They have warned that compensation needs to be concluded urgently, as many of the former Post Office workers affected by the long-running scandal are elderly, some have already died while awaiting redress, while others remain at risk of losing their homes.

The committee began holding hearings in 2020 about the Horizon IT scandal, one of the biggest miscarriages of justice in British legal history, and has now published an interim report. The committee has paused its hearings as the public inquiry into the scandal has got under way.

Between 2000 and 2014, the Post Office prosecuted 736 post office operators – an average of one a week – based on information from the Horizon IT system, which was installed and maintained by Fujitsu.

A group of 555 former workers won a high court battle against the Post Office in December 2019, when a high court judge ruled that Horizon’s system contained a number of “bugs, errors and defects” and there was a “material risk” that shortfalls in Post Office branch accounts were caused by the system.

Dozens of former Post Office workers have since had their convictions for theft, fraud and false accounting quashed by the court of appeal.

Some of the convicted workers were sent to prison, others lost their livelihoods and their homes. Many went bankrupt, and some died before their names were cleared.

The group of 555 who brought the legal action were awarded £57.75m, but the vast majority (£46m) was swallowed up in legal costs, leaving only about £20,000 in compensation for each person, which MPs said the victims view as “inadequate”.

At the time of the high court verdict, the government decided this group could not apply for compensation through another scheme, known as the historical shortfall scheme (HSS).

The MPs condemned how this had led to the “perverse situation” that workers who were part of the legal action faced receiving less compensation than others.

“It is clearly entirely unacceptable that the group of 555 victims who first brought this scandal successfully to court are being left in a worse position than those who are being compensated thanks to their action,” said Darren Jones, chair of the committee.

“There is no valid reason to exclude the 555 from being fully compensated and the chancellor must come forward with the required funding now.”

The MPs expressed concern that over 570 sub-postmasters who were wrongly convicted as a result of Horizon have not yet come forward to begin the process of overturning their convictions, despite attempts by the Post Office to contact them.

They are calling on the government to create an independent body to serve as a “trusted first point of contact” for those who were wrongly convicted.

The Post Office has previously said it cannot afford to foot the huge clean-up bill for the scandal and the government, the service’s only shareholder, has confirmed the taxpayer would step in.

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Food and drink industry warns MPs of ‘terrifying’ price rises

Linda Stewart — Tue, 19 Oct 2021 15:58:19 +0000

Food and drink firms are seeing “terrifying” price rises , according to sector trade body, the Food and Drink Federation.

The industry has warned MPs of knock-on effects for consumers.

Food and Drink Federation boss Ian Wright told MPs that inflation is running at between 14%-18% for hospitality firms, the BBC reports.

The price rises for food firms’ ingredients would lead to consumer price rises, he said, describing the situation as concerning. The UK’s rate of inflation was 3.2% in August and is expected to rise further.

Bank of England governor Andrew Bailey recently warned it would have to act, and suggested that UK interest rates may soon rise from the historic low of 0.1%.

Mr Wright told MPs on the Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy select committee: “Inflation is a bigger scourge than anything else because it discriminates against the poor.”

The Office for National Statistics will publish the latest inflation figures for September on Wednesday. It is expected to rise further above the Bank of England’s target of 2% for longer than previously thought.

Baked in

Make UK, the manufacturers’ organisation, said that inflation was becoming “baked in” among its members.

Stephen Phipson, chief executive at Make UK, told MPs that while there was a welcome rise in demand, many manufacturers are looking at 30% to 40% average increases in material costs.

“When people are able to get hold of materials they are passing those costs on which does imply to us that inflation is more or less baked in at this stage now,” he said.

“This is not a transitory inflationary demand – we are seeing really serious issues now in terms of price increases.”

Surging energy prices

Des Gunewardena, chief executive of high-end restaurant group D&D London, says his business has seen half of its costs rise, including surging energy prices.

He says staff shortages are his “number one issue” and has increased salaries by 10%.

The business has 1,700 employees across the UK and is currently 150 staff short, which he said could lead to a “nightmare situation” in the busier December period.

Table covers have been reduced from 400 on a Friday night at his Quaglino’s restaurant to between 300 and 350 due to staff shortages.

However, he said the restaurants have seen increased customer spending, so he is stocking up on specific champagne brands ahead of time, to pre-empt possible supply problems.

“I think we’ll have a very strong Christmas so there’s no need to panic yet, but I expect further inflation in January when there won’t be the same spending to offset the extra costs”.

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Falsely convicted postal workers must be ‘fully compensated’, says MP committee

Food and drink industry warns MPs of ‘terrifying’ price rises