Post Office Scandal Impacts Victims: Urgent Recommendations Made

The report makes a series of urgent recommendations, including: free legal advice for claimants, compensation payments for close family members of those affected, and a programme of restorative justice with Fujitsu, the Post Office, and the government meeting individual victims directly. Sir Wyn also criticized the challenges in delivering financial redress for victims, currently organized around three different schemes. He highlighted delays in compensation delivery, especially for claimants with substantial claims. One scheme, for those who experienced unexplained shortfalls related to Horizon but were not convicted, faced criticism for adopting an unnecessarily adversarial attitude towards making initial offers. According to the report, 10,000 eligible people are currently claiming redress, with Sir Wyn expecting this number to increase by at least hundreds in the coming months. He called on the government to define 'full and fair financial redress' publicly and recommended changes to some schemes. Sir Wyn will investigate the scandal's causes and responsible parties in a later report. In this initial part, he noted that senior Post Office employees were aware, or should have been aware, of issues with the Horizon software. He mentioned that Post Office and Fujitsu employees knew about bugs in a later version of the software that could impact branch accounts. Sir Wyn has requested the government to respond to his findings by October 2025.