Post campaigner Alan Bates calls on Starmer for March deadline for Horizon…

October 19, 2024, 8:59 p.m

Postal campaigner Sir Alan Bates has demanded from Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer a March 2025 deadline for payment to Horizon victims.

Sir Alan, who was knighted for his efforts to bring justice to deputy postmasters harmed by Horizon IT software, says he and a hundred other victims have not been told when they will receive their compensation.

He says he wrote to the Prime Minister in October to demand that the Department of Business and Trade (DBT) complete all compensation claims by March 2025.

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More than 900 deputy postmasters were wrongly accused of stealing from their branches because of Horizon’s flawed accounting system between 1999 and 2015.

Sir Alan, who heads the Justice Alliance for Subpostmasters, is calling on the government to set a deadline of next March to pay reparations to victims.

Bates told the i: “Like many of the groups, my claim has not been completed. It is ridiculous. I am one of many in this position.

“That’s why I wrote to the Prime Minister at the beginning of October, asking him to direct the department to ensure that all claims, and I’m talking about the GLO group, the original 555, were completed by March l next year.”

He added: “It leads me to believe that there is no reason why it cannot be done if that instruction has been given.

“But I have not yet received any reply from the Prime Minister to my letter. Perhaps it will appear on Monday.”

The compensation scheme was created after Sir Alan, leading a group of 555 deputy postmasters, won a landmark court case in the High Court.

Of the hundreds of members in the group, 63 had criminal convictions and are therefore ineligible for this scheme, but are eligible for other compensation, depending on how their convictions are being overturned.

According to the latest government figures, 201 of the 492 eligible assistant principals in the program have received their payments in full.