Transparency data

Post Office Horizon financial redress data as of 30 August 2024

Updated 4 September 2024

As of 30 August 2024, approximately £289 million has been paid to over 2,800 claimants across 4 schemes:

• Horizon Shortfall Scheme (HSS): £144 million
• Group Litigation Order (GLO) Scheme: £87 million total value of all payments including interim payments
• Overturned Convictions (OC): £56 million total value of all payments including further interim payments
• Horizon Convictions Redress Scheme (HCRS): £1 million total value of all payments including interim payments

1. Claim data by scheme

Scheme	Claims received	Offers made	Offers accepted	Claims paid
Overturned Convictions (OC): initial interim payments	105 [-]	105 [+1]	105 [+1]	104 [-]
Overturned Convictions (OC): full and final settlements	73 [+2]	62 [+4]	57 [+2]	57 [+2]
Group Litigation Order Scheme (GLO): initial interim payment	Not applicable	Not applicable	Not applicable	476-483*
Group Litigation Order Scheme (GLO): full and final	263 [+25]	253 [+26]	207 [+12]	201 [+11]
Horizon Shortfall Scheme (HSS): eligible claims before deadline	2417 [-]	2417 [-]	2071 [+6]	2069 [+4]
Horizon Shortfall Scheme (HSS): eligible late claims	1662 [+149]	334 [+11]	224 [+18]	211 [+14]
Horizon Convictions Redress Scheme (HCRS): initial interim payments	6 [**]	6 [**]	6 [**]	6 [**]
Horizon Convictions Redress Scheme (HCRS): full and final	Not available	Not available	Not available	Not available

Information correct as of 30 August 2024.

Changes from last month (31 July 2024) in square brackets.
[-] indicates no change since last month.

*For disclosure reasons, the exact number of claims paid is now withheld.

[**] Indicates not reported before so change on previous month is not available.

1.1 Notes for table

In the ‘Claim data by scheme’ table:

• spend is rounded to nearest £1 million
• data regarding the HSS and OC are sourced from Post Office Ltd, which retains full responsibility for the data published on its website

1.2 Overturned Convictions (OC)

Initial interim payments are available to eligible postmasters upon getting their conviction overturned on the grounds that it was reliant on Horizon evidence.

A ‘full’ settlement comprises both pecuniary (financial) and non-pecuniary (personal) losses, but the Post Office has been progressing non-pecuniary settlements first to get money to postmasters as quickly as possible. This means a number of partial settlements have been reached in addition to the full and final settlements published here.

The department is now publishing data on full and final settlements. Claims received are no longer being broken down into pecuniary and non-pecuniary settlements as in previous months.

Any individual with a conviction overturned by the Post Office (Horizon System) Offences Act 2024 or the Post Office (Horizon System) Offences (Scotland) Act will be eligible to seek financial redress via the Horizon Convictions Redress Scheme (HCRS).

1.3 Group Litigation Order (GLO) scheme

Out of the 555 who were members of the Group Litigation Order, 63 postmasters had convictions and are therefore eligible to apply for redress once their conviction has been overturned. If their conviction has been overturned by the courts, they are eligible under the Overturned Convictions (OC) Scheme. If their conviction has been overturned by the legislation, they are eligible for Horizon Convictions Redress Scheme (HCRS).

The remaining 492 postmasters are currently eligible for the Group Litigation Order scheme, of whom 484 qualify for interim payments. For disclosure reasons, the exact number of initial interim payment claims paid is now withheld. This month, the number of initial interim payments has not increased.

Work continues on distributing shares of the £19.5 million interim payments announced in June 2022, particularly on remaining payments in complex categories such as those recently deceased and people who have not taken up the offer of an interim payment.

1.4 Horizon Shortfall Scheme (HSS)

Post Office received 2,417 eligible claims by March 2021.

The closure date for applications was 27 November 2020, but Post Office continued to accept applications for the original deadline group up to March 2021.

In October 2022, the government announced that additional funding would be provided so that eligible late claimants could receive financial redress, and the scheme reopened for applications.

Post Office has received 1,662 eligible late claims to date.

Interim payments on the HSS are available before and after claimants receive an offer of redress.

The £144 million paid out on the HSS includes £31.3 million in interim payments to original claimants and £5.7 million in interim payments to late applications.

On 13 March 2024, the government announced that all eligible HSS claimants would be entitled to a fixed sum award of £75,000.

Post Office have started making top-up payments to claimants who had previously accepted a full and final offer below the value of £75,000.

As of 30 August 2024, approximately £14 million has been paid in award top-ups.

1.5 Horizon Convictions Redress Scheme (HCRS)

The Post Office (Horizon System) Offences Act 2024 and the Post Office (Horizon System) Offences (Scotland) Act 2024 quashed Horizon-related convictions on a blanket basis in June 2024, according to a set of criteria in the Acts, covering each UK nation.

On 30 July 2024, the UK government announced the launch of the Horizon Convictions Redress Scheme (HCRS), delivered by the Department for Business and Trade (DBT), to provide financial redress to postmasters across the UK who had their convictions quashed by the Acts.

Applicants have begun registering for the HCRS and the department is working with the relevant justice authorities to confirm individual applicants’ eligibility for the scheme.

Eligible applicants have a choice of 2 routes to redress: they can either accept a fixed and final sum of £600,000, or they can choose to submit their application to a detailed assessment process.

All eligible applicants are entitled to an initial interim payment of £200,000.

Beginning with this publication, the department is now publishing data on settlements, broken down by initial interim payments and full and final settlements.

2. GLO Scheme delivery target

DBT is committed to a target of making a first offer to 90% of claimants who have submitted a full claim within 40 working days. A full claim is defined as a claim which DBT considers, with advice from its legal advisors, does not need any further evidence in order to assess every element of the claim.

Should the department consider further evidence is needed in order to make a full assessment, the 40 working day target will not start until such time that the required evidence is received from the claimant or any other source.

As of 30 August 2024, 90% of claimants received their first offer within 40 working days of submitting a full claim.

3. GLO Scheme £75,000 fixed payment impact 

Due to changes made in January 2024, all eligible GLO claimants are now offered the option to settle their claims on a full and final basis for a total fixed sum of £75,000 inclusive of interest, instead of making a claim for their individual losses.

This means that the claim would not be assessed by the department against the process set out in the guidance and principles.

Any payments received from the department to date or from the GLO settlement will be deducted from the £75,000 before payment is made.

As of 30 August 2024, 207 offers have been accepted. 150 of these have accepted offers of the £75,000 fixed payment. Of those who have accepted the £75,000 fixed payment, four fifths are new claims and a fifth had previously accepted offers.

4. Post Office data

This data is part of DBT’s Post Office Horizon financial redress data collection.

DBT publishes independent reports, written by Dentons, on the GLO scheme.

Post Office also publishes:

• updates on Overturned Convictions and financial redress
• updates on the Horizon Shortfall Scheme
• reports on Horizon financial redress