#postofficetrial A big thank you to @KateOsborneMP for joining me @10DowningStreet to hand over the petition & thanks to @itvtynetees for covering the story. The fight will continue until @BorisJohnson @Conservatives call an inquiry into this scandal #inquiry #answers #justice

#PostOfficeScandal In 2021 I spoke with Nick Read as CEO of @PostOffice and warned that if they did not voluntarily re-open HSS claims they would be forced to do so later down the line. This happened in 2024. Subsequently when the Post Office and government rolled out the Fixed Sum Award of £75,000 I wrote to the Post Office, the Minister and the inquiry to warn again that they would be forced to re-open these accepted awards because many people were legally unrepresented and ordinary people would have no idea how to value their claims with regards to the many heads of claim they might be entitled to. This has now happened as per the announcement last week from @biztradegovuk Latest announcement on more appeals and changes to the redress schemes :- gov.uk/government/news/new-a… It is one of the reasons the Information and Support service was created as I was swamped helping hundreds of victims navigate the labyrinth of redress schemes. I had suggested it needed to be fully paid legal advice like in the GLO and HCRS schemes, but government refused on the basis it would be too slow and costly. I accepted that some service would be better than nothing but I made it very clear that I did not support that over legal advice. Here we are again over a year later and we are now funding legal advice for those who accepted the £75,000 to determine if they should appeal and apply for more. So not only have we paid several million for the information and support service, we are now funding the legal fees for the exact same cohort of claimants. Yet all this talk that we must be cautious because this is taxpayer money. The whole thing is nonsensical. Everything that they have refused to do over the years, they are now as I suggested to them many times over being forced to do exactly those things. Below is just one of many letters that have been sent over the years highlighting all of these problems. Slowly the resolutions are coming, but for many as we saw yesterday it is too late as people are sadly passing away before receiving redress and justice. Then we have some of the most complex claims still fighting tooth and claw to receive redress they are owed because of the continued adversarial nature of the schemes.

RIP Heather 🙏 Sad news yet again that another Postmaster passed away before seeing full and fair redress and justice delivered. This could have all been avoided if the adversarial tactics were not applied at every stage of a claim

This was blindingly obvious to anyone other than the Department that the deadline set couldn’t possibly be met. If you look at the past statistics as I set out in previous letters to the Department, Ministers and Inquiry Chair Sir Wyn Williams it suggested redress claims would run until at least mid 2027 and potentially into 2028. I would suggest it is a near certainty claims will be ongoing into 2028 and if any HCRS claimants start the process now or early 2027 I am saddened to say that could run into 2029.