The Post Office wasn’t asked about the government’s plan to give £600,000 to wrongly convicted subpostmasters—a decision that Simon Recaldin, who oversees the compensation efforts, called “political.”
During the recent public inquiry into the Post Office scandal, Recaldin explained that the Post Office expects to pay out around £650 million in compensation by March and anticipates the total cost could reach about £1.4 billion. He was questioned about the government’s announcement from last September, in which ministers stated that all wrongfully convicted subpostmasters would receive £600,000 as a form of financial redress. Those affected could either accept this as a final settlement or pursue a larger claim. About 900 former subpostmasters and branch staff are eligible for the payout.
While Recaldin called the £600,000 initiative “brilliant” and a smart way to speed up compensation, he pointed out that the Post Office was never part of the decision-making process. “I was informed about it during a quarterly meeting and learned it was set to launch the next day,” he said. He criticized the launch for being “shrouded in secrecy,” leaving the Post Office to manage and implement the offer without prior consultation.
The decision came directly from then-Secretary of State Kemi Badenoch and former Post Office minister Kevin Hollinrake. Recaldin speculated that the lack of transparency was intended to create a strong positive impact.
He didn’t want to delve into the political side of the decision but acknowledged that certain aspects of the announcement and the recent increase in compensation funding were indeed political. Chancellor Rachel Reeves recently raised the compensation fund from an estimated £1.2 billion to £1.8 billion.
Recaldin expressed concern about how the £600,000 announcement affected those involved. “We’ve heard from many distressed former subpostmasters after the announcement,” he mentioned, noting that some faced unwelcome attention as a result of the decision.
He also revealed that some former subpostmasters have been in disputes with the Post Office over compensation for four years, with initial offers frequently increasing when challenged by legal representatives.
This scandal first came to light back in 2009 when Computer Weekly uncovered the stories of seven subpostmasters impacted by the Horizon accounting software, which has since been recognized as one of the largest miscarriages of justice in British history.