Starmer ignored Sir Alan Bates' letters to bring forward Post Office compensation

Sir Alan Bates told ITV News the prime minister has not responded to his request to bring forward compensation payments for wrongly convicted sub-postmasters, as ITV News' Investigations Editor Daniel Hewitt reports

Sir Alan Bates has told ITV News that Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has ignored two letters he has written to him regarding ongoing delays to compensation for sub-postmasters.

The Post Office campaigner first wrote to the prime minister on October 2, and again a few days ago, urging him to ensure victims receive full financial redress by March next year, but Sir Alan has not received any reply.

“I’ve had very little contact with the new government,” Sir Alan told ITV News.

“In fact, I've never received a letter, a response, to when I wrote to the prime minister about just over a month ago asking him to bring in a six month deadline for the scheme to make sure that all claims… were resolved by the end of March.

“I never had a response. I sent him another chase up letter just yesterday.

“Maybe he can bring his good office to bear and put a bit of pressure on the department to get this out.”

ITV News has also learned that Detectives investigating the Post Office Horizon scandal are to meet with sub-postmasters, including Sir Alan, to update them on the progress of their investigation.

Officers from Operation Olympus will meet members of the Justice for Sub-postmasters Alliance next week.

Speaking to ITV News in Westminster ahead of a new inquiry by the Business and Trade Select Committee into compensation delays, Sir Alan said it is unacceptable that sub-postmasters have been left waiting for full financial redress for so long, with some victims giving up and others dying before their claims are completed.

'There are some people who have given up. It's been too much for them, and I can understand that'

“Since this all began, even in our Group Litigation Order group, the 555, I think over 70 have passed away,” he said.

“We are losing numbers, but there's a lot of people who are determined to see it through to the end.

“There are some people who have given up. It's been too much for them, and I can understand that.

“When you spend so many years fighting this battle and seem to be banging your head against the brick wall for so long, it's easy just to accept it.

“I do worry also that some people are accepting claims for lower amounts than perhaps they're entitled to if they hung on a bit longer.”

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On the Police investigation, Sir Alan said he’s optimistic they are taking it seriously and will act.

The criminal inquiry is being led by Commander Stephen Clayman, Head of Central Specialist Crime at the Metropolitan Police, and is assessing potential offences of perjury and perverting the course of justice.

Since launching the investigation in January 2020, detectives have interviewed three people and made no arrests.

“They have put together a big team to work on it,” said Sir Alan.

"They did say… it could be a couple of years until they actually managed to move forward with any sort of certainty on cases, but I do think they recognise how serious all of this has been, and I do think they are actually going to act at the end of the day.

“Well if they don’t, we will.”

The prime minister's official spokesman said: “It was obviously right that we took the time to consider the issues raised in the letter to the prime minister, consider our response, make sure it was accurate and substantial and obviously we engaged with relevant departments to ensure that the prime minister's response was as full as possible.

“I think that response was issued earlier today. On the substance of the issue, the government is committed to getting redress to those affected as quickly as possible and is doing all it can to increase the pace of redress across all schemes.”

The spokesman added: “What we don't want to do is set an arbitrary cut-off date which could result in some claimants missing the deadline. We obviously don't want to put pressure on claimants and put them off contesting their claim.

“But each postmaster eligible for the GLO scheme should receive substantial redress by the end of March and we are doing everything we can to achieve that goal.”

A spokesperson for the Metropolitan Police said: “Given the significant scale of the investigation, this next phase is a national policing effort, coordinated by the Met, and we will be looking to provide updates to those affected soon.

“We do not underestimate the seriousness of the task at hand and we are determined to carry out a full investigation with independence, precision and integrity.”

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