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Sir Alan Bates lands seven-figure Horizon payout · THE DAILY BRIEF

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Significant news about the situation regarding Sir ALANM. Bates, who
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: of course fought tirelessly over more than twenty years to
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: seek justice for the victims of the Post Office Horizon scandal.
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: What I can reveal this morning is that Sir Alan
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: himself has reached a settlement with the government over his
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: own multimillion pounds compensation claim. Now, Sir Alan has been
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: very vocal publicly in criticizing the pace and the progress
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: of the government's efforts to award address to those who
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: were the victims of the Horizon It scandal. As we know,
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: more than a dozen people took their own lives. Hundreds
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: of people were wrongfully convicted and sent to prison over
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  Speaker 1: this Fallsey software system, which we now know the bosses
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: of the Post Office at the time and the Japanese
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  Speaker 1: company Fijitsu which supplied that software were aware of its
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  Speaker 1: potential flaws. Now, as I understand it, Sir Allan, who
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  Speaker 1: described an offer that he had received in May as
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: a take it or leave it offer, he has received
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  Speaker 1: a payout which I understand to be worth between four
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  Speaker 1: and five million pounds that amounts to just under half
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: of his total claim. Now the government has given me
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  Speaker 1: a statement this morning saying we pay tribute to Sir
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  Speaker 1: Alan Bates for his long record of campaigning on behalf
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  Speaker 1: of victims and have now paid out over one point
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  Speaker 1: two billion pounds to more than nine thousand victims. We
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  Speaker 1: can confirm that Sir Alan's claim has reached the end
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: of the scheme process and been settled. I should also
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  Speaker 1: point out that I've tried to reach Sir Allan for
• 1:35
  Speaker 1: comment on this development and have been unable to do so.
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  Speaker 1: So we'll keep trying to reach in to see if
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  Speaker 1: he wants to provide a response to the fact that
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  Speaker 1: the government has now confirmed that his own claim has
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  Speaker 1: been settled.
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  Speaker 2: As ever, a massive scoop mark congrats on that. What
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  Speaker 2: are the implications for other claimants? Are these things done
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  Speaker 2: collectively or individually well?
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  Speaker 1: Originally, Sir Alan was, in so many a pioneer in
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: terms of fighting for justice for the victims of the
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  Speaker 1: post office scandal. Originally, he and about five hundred and
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  Speaker 1: fifty other former subpostmasters took the post Office to court
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  Speaker 1: received what was called a group compensation order of about
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  Speaker 1: fifty eight million pounds, but after legal fees, that was
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  Speaker 1: whittled down to just twelve million pounds that then prompted
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  Speaker 1: the government to set up a further redress scheme, which
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  Speaker 1: is being handled on an individual, case by case basis.
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  Speaker 1: And I should point out that it's not just Sir
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  Speaker 1: Allen who has complained bitterly about this compensation process. A
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  Speaker 1: number of other very high profile former subpostmasters have also
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  Speaker 1: said that the offers that they've received were inadequate and
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  Speaker 1: that they haven't materialized at all. So there are still
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  Speaker 1: a number, a large number of other claimants from this
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  Speaker 1: process who are waiting to receive their money. And I
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  Speaker 1: don't think there's anyone who would agree or argue that
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  Speaker 1: those payments aren't long overdue.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, I think things that's worth reminding everyone, and I'm
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  Speaker 3: sure I don't need reminding us be honest about you
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  Speaker 3: know what this is about. I think the thing that
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  Speaker 3: got me about the story is that the post office
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  Speaker 3: workers were people who were like pillars of their local community.
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  Speaker 3: They were like central to their high streets. There were
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  Speaker 3: small business owners, not early buckets of money, but doing
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  Speaker 3: a job that they felt was worthwhile, and they had
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  Speaker 3: standing within their community. And I think that's why it
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  Speaker 3: kind of destroyed these people's lives so much that they
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  Speaker 3: were seen as thieves, right, And it's the criminal stuff
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  Speaker 3: that came without, but it's also the reputational damage that
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  Speaker 3: it came to these people as well. Who you know.
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  Speaker 3: You know what the post office like in your sort
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  Speaker 3: of high street. You know whether it's in a pharmacy
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  Speaker 3: or in its own building. You know the person in there,
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  Speaker 3: that they're part of your daily life. Right.
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  Speaker 1: Absolutely, hundreds of people had their livelihoods destroyed, but as
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  Speaker 1: you say, they had their reputations within their local communities
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  Speaker 1: left in ruins. No amount of money obviously can repair
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  Speaker 1: that damage. But of course, as we see with this
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  Speaker 1: case involving Surrell, and I think it's worth pointing out
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  Speaker 1: that's relevant, will probably receive the largest of any of
• 4:03
  Speaker 1: the individual sums being paid out by the government in
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  Speaker 1: compensation over the Horizon scandal.
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  Speaker 2: That part I find really interesting, And I don't know
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  Speaker 2: all of the legals of this, but I can totally
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  Speaker 2: see how we'd all sit here and say he almost
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  Speaker 2: deserves more. Maybe many of the other postmasters would almost
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  Speaker 2: say that because of the leading role he's played to
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  Speaker 2: get to this point. But a settlement surely won't be
• 4:25
  Speaker 2: based on who's been the most effective campaign. It will
• 4:27
  Speaker 2: be based on the extent to which they were wrong.
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  Speaker 2: But in that regard, if you're saying this is going
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  Speaker 2: to be done equally, then the government might be having
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  Speaker 2: to pay four to five million pounds to quite a
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  Speaker 2: lot of people.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, don't forget, Wilford, that the post Office is a
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  Speaker 1: publicly owned company. It's subsidized by the state, and the
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  Speaker 1: post Office's own finances have been in a pretty parlor
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  Speaker 1: state for a very long period of time. There's a
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  Speaker 1: new management team in place now which is trying to
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  Speaker 1: turn the post office's commercial performance around. But the government,
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  Speaker 1: as you say, he is facing some pretty hefty claims.
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  Speaker 1: They say they've paid out over one point two billion
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  Speaker 1: pounds to over nine thousand to over nine thousand victims,
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  Speaker 1: and as I say, I suspect that Sir Allan's compensation
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  Speaker 1: payment will be the largest of the lot