'Injustice lives on' for victims of Post Office IT scandal

JUSTICE for the Post Office Horizon scandal victims “must be denied no more” said a senior Labour MP who has accused the Government of ignoring complaints about its flawed compensation scheme.

- Jonathan Walker

Liam Byrne, chair of the Commons Business Committee, said: “We have warned Ministers again and again that the Horizon redress scheme simply isn't fair.”

His scathing verdict comes after it emerged campaigner Sir Alan Bates had been offered a “take-it-or-leave-it” payment of just half of his original claim.

He was one of hundreds of sub-postmasters wrongly accused of dishonesty or incompetence after money appeared to go missing from their accounts when faulty accounting software was really to blame.

Sir Alan warned the compensation schemes have been turned into “quasi-kangaroo courts” and he was backed by Mr Byrne, a former Cabinet Minister, who said his committee had told Ministers “the scheme must be independent, faster and fairer”.

Mr Byrne added: “Yet time after time, our advice was ignored, rejected and rebuffed. And so injustice lives on.