Asked by: Lord Sikka (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many of the sub-postmasters wrongfully convicted because of flawed Horizon computer evidence are yet to have their convictions overturned, allowing for payment of compensation.
Answered by Lord Offord of Garvel - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade)
700 postmasters were prosecuted by Post Office and a further 283 were prosecuted by others based on Post Office evidence, totalling 983 convictions. As of 13 February, there are now 102 overturned wrongful convictions.
On 10 January, the Prime Minister announced that the Government intends to bring forward legislation to overturn the convictions of all those convicted in England or Wales on the basis of Post Office evidence during the Horizon scandal.
Asked by: Lord Sikka (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask His Majesty's Government when the 'Transformation Incentive Scheme' authorising payment of bonuses to the Post Office senior employees for co-operating with the Post Office Horizon IT Inquiry was designed, approved, and implemented; and which Ministers approved it.
Answered by Lord Offord of Garvel - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade)
While Ministers at the then Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) and HM Treasury Ministers signed off on the 2021/22 Transformation Incentive Scheme (TIS) they did not authorise the payment of bonuses. Determining whether targets have been met and bonuses should be awarded is the responsibility of Post Office Limited’s Remuneration Committee.
The timeline of approvals is set out in both Post Office Limited’s Review of the Transformation Incentive Scheme (TIS), also known as the Amanda Burton Report, and HM Government’s Review Of The Governance Relevant To Post Office Limited's Senior Executive Remuneration.
Asked by: Lord Sikka (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether they intend to publish the names and bonus amounts paid to Post Office senior employees under the ‘Transformation Incentive Scheme’ for co-operating with the Post Office Horizon IT Inquiry.
Answered by Lord Offord of Garvel - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade)
This is a matter for Post Office Ltd as the Department does not hold this information. Government understands that all current Post Office employees who received the bonus have voluntarily returned the remuneration associated with the sub-metric relating to the Post Office’s support for the Inquiry. Nick Read (Post Office CEO) took a further step and voluntarily returned the full bonus payment attributed to the overall Inquiry metric.
Asked by: Lord Sikka (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether all the flaws in the Horizon IT system operated by the Post Office and referred to in the High Court judgement in Alan Bates and Others v Post Office Limited [2019] EWHC 3408 (QB) have since been rectified.
Answered by Lord Offord of Garvel - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade)
There have been several versions of Horizon since its introduction in 1999 and the current version of the system, introduced from 2017, was found in the Group Litigation to be reliable, relative to comparable systems. Post Office continue to make improvements to the system and will be moving away from Horizon to a new IT system. The Government is providing funding to support this programme. In the meantime, Horizon remains in place. Fujitsu's role in the Horizon scandal is one of the issues being examined by the Post Office Horizon IT Inquiry. Post Office Limited has entered into a standstill agreement with Fujitsu.
Asked by: Lord Sikka (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether the Post Office entered into a standstill agreement with Fujitsu over the flaws found in the Horizon IT system.
Answered by Lord Offord of Garvel - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade)
There have been several versions of Horizon since its introduction in 1999 and the current version of the system, introduced from 2017, was found in the Group Litigation to be reliable, relative to comparable systems. Post Office continue to make improvements to the system and will be moving away from Horizon to a new IT system. The Government is providing funding to support this programme. In the meantime, Horizon remains in place. Fujitsu's role in the Horizon scandal is one of the issues being examined by the Post Office Horizon IT Inquiry. Post Office Limited has entered into a standstill agreement with Fujitsu.
Asked by: Lord Sikka (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether, further to reports by the forensic accounting company Second Sight, any Minister, civil servant, or director appointed by the Government advised the Post Office to make provision for contingent liabilities in its annual financial statements; and if so, on what dates such recommendations were made.
Answered by Lord Offord of Garvel - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade)
In the timeframe available to us, we have not been able to identify any Minister, civil servant, or director appointed by the Government advising the Post Office to make provision for contingent liabilities in its annual financial statements. The Post Office Board is collectively responsible for approving what is in the Accounts.
Asked by: Lord Sikka (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask His Majesty's Government how much they have given to the Post Office in subsidies in each of the years since 2000.
Answered by Lord Offord of Garvel - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade)
The Postal Services Act 2011 established Post Office Limited as a company independent of Royal Mail Group. The following table sets out the subsidies awarded by Government to Post Office Limited since the 2011/12 Financial Year. The funding covers annual network subsidy payments, investment funding and from 2021/22 funding for Horizon compensation payments.
Financial Year | Total (£m) |
2011/12 | 180 |
2012/13 | 410 |
2013/14 | 415 |
2014/15 | 330 |
2015/16 | 280 |
2016/17 | 220 |
2017/18 | 140 |
2018/19 | 228 |
2019/20 | 92 |
2020/21 | 50 |
2021/22 | 233 (of which £52m was a commercial loan) |
2022/23 | 137 |
Asked by: Lord Sikka (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask His Majesty's Government when they first became aware of the prosecutions being brought against sub-postmasters for alleged deficits arising from deficiencies in the Horizon software system.
Answered by Lord Offord of Garvel - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade)
This is a matter for the statutory Post Office Horizon IT Inquiry. It would be wrong to prejudice its work.
983 Post Office-related convictions have been identified during the relevant period. Not all of these will be directly related to the Horizon system.
Asked by: Lord Sikka (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask His Majesty's Government how much funding they approved for prosecutions of sub-postmasters by the Post Office, if any.
Answered by Lord Offord of Garvel - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade)
The Government has not provided funding for prosecution of sub-postmasters.
Asked by: Lord Sikka (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask His Majesty's Government what information they have about the application by the Post Office in 2019 to recuse Mr Justice Fraser from the High Court case of Bates and Others vs Post Office Ltd.
Answered by Lord Offord of Garvel - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade)
This is a matter which we expect that the statutory Post Office Horizon IT Inquiry under Sir Wyn Williams will examine. The Government is cooperating fully with the Inquiry’s work and should not pre-judge its findings.