Sir Alan Bates has reached out to Prime Minister Keir Starmer, urging him to ensure that financial compensation for victims of the Post Office scandal is settled by March next year. If the government can’t handle it, Bates wants an independent organization to step in, or they risk facing court action.
In a message to the Justice for Subpostmasters Alliance (JFSA), Bates spelled out his demands: he expects all Group Litigation Order (GLO) claims to be resolved by March 2025. If the Department of Business and Trade (DBT) can’t manage that, he wants them to bring in someone who can. Bates made it clear that pursuing legal action remains a viable option for JFSA members, and they’re already exploring discussions with law firms, backed by expected public support.
In his email, Bates mentioned that he contacted Starmer on October 2, calling for the DBT to complete all GLO claims by March 2025. He stressed that if the DBT cannot get it done, an external body must be hired to finish the work. Bates emphasized that the JFSA is ready to take further legal steps and believes they can raise sufficient funds when needed.
“We need that guarantee, not excuses,” Bates stated. “If that doesn’t happen, we’ll have to return to the courts. I’ll be meeting with new law firms to discuss how we can restart that process. This time, we have the nation’s support behind us, and I’m confident we can crowdfund whatever we need.”
Bates reached out to Liam Byrne MP, chair of the business department select committee, asking for support with the March 2025 timeline.
The wait has been long, and some are questioning whether a deadline is too much to ask. The previous deadline of August 2024 has already come and gone, and since Bates first faced issues at his North Wales Post Office in 2003, the UK has seen eight prime ministers and six general elections.
The JFSA has played a vital role in uncovering the scandal, leading a High Court action that resulted in groundbreaking trials in 2018 and 2019 where they won against the Post Office. They proved that the Horizon computer system, used across many branches, created unexplained shortfalls, which wrongful convictions were based on. Starmer is now the fifth prime minister since those trials, as the government has managed to spend billions responding to COVID-19—often ineffectively—while subpostmasters continue to wait for justice.
Throughout this fight, the JFSA has consistently pushed the government into action, exposing what many consider the biggest miscarriage of justice in British history. Their relentless efforts also led to a public inquiry that has now been ongoing for over two years. It wasn’t until January of this year, following ITV’s dramatization of the scandal, that the government finally took decisive action, quickly legislating to overturn wrongful convictions. This speed highlighted that when there’s public pressure, the government can act but still seems unable to provide final financial reparations for JFSA members.
The Post Office scandal came to light in 2009 through Computer Weekly, detailing the plight of several subpostmasters affected by the Horizon accounting software, leading to one of the largest miscarriages of justice in British history.