Transparency data

Post Office Horizon compensation data: December 2023

Updated 5 March 2024

The government is determined that postmasters affected by the Horizon IT scandal receive the compensation that they deserve. As of 1 December 2023, approximately £138 million has been paid to over 2,700 claimants across 3 schemes:

• Horizon Shortfall Scheme (HSS): £87 million

• Group Litigation Order (GLO) Scheme: £27 million total value of all payments including interim payments

• Overturned Convictions (OC): 93 convictions have been overturned: £24 million total value of all payments including further interim payments

Claim data by scheme

Scheme	Claims received	Offer made	Claims paid
Overturned Convictions (OC): initial interim payments	87 [+1]	83 [-]	83 [+1
Overturned Convictions (OC): pecuniary	22 [-]	10 [-]	5 [-]
Overturned Convictions (OC) non-pecuniary	76 [-]	76 [-]	60 [-]
Group Litigation Order Scheme (GLO): initial interim payment	N/A	N/A	475 [+1]
Group Litigation Order Scheme (GLO): full and final	48 [+12]	26 [+16]	Withheld
Horizon Shortfall Scheme (HSS): eligible claims before deadline	2,417 [-]	2,417 [+2]	2,034 [+5]
Horizon Shortfall Scheme (HSS): eligible late claims	291 [+9]	224 [+18]	128 [+11]

Information correct as of 1 December 2023. Changes from last month in square brackets.
[-] indicates no change since last month.

Notes for table

In the above table:

• spend is rounded to nearest £1 million
• some data are withheld by Department for Business and Trade (DBT) for claimant privacy purposes
• data regarding the HSS and OC are sourced from Post Office Ltd which retains full responsibility for the data published on its website
• Overturned Convictions (OC):
  • initial interim payments are available to eligible postmasters upon getting their conviction overturned on the grounds that it was reliant on Horizon evidence
  • non-pecuniary damages are personal damages, such as mental distress and loss of liberty. Pecuniary damages are financial damages, such as loss of earnings. A ‘full’ settlement comprises both elements of claim, but the Post Office has been progressing non-pecuniary settlements first to get money to postmasters as quickly as possible
  • for the purposes of this data publication, the numbers of claims received/offers made/settled therefore do not necessarily correspond to the number of individuals who have received monies – as one individual may have received an interim payment, a non-pecuniary settlement and a pecuniary settlement, each of which would be counted as ‘one’ claim/offer/settlement
  • the data breakdown sets out volumes of initial interim payments and full claims (split into pecuniary and non-pecuniary); the figure presented as the total sum of compensation paid out, however, also includes partial settlements or further interim payments, which are not included as volumes in the data breakdown
• Group Litigation Order (GLO) Scheme:
  • 63 postmasters (out of the 555 who were members of the Group Litigation Order) had convictions and are therefore eligible to apply for compensation once their conviction has been overturned. The remaining 492 postmasters are currently eligible for the Group Litigation Order Scheme, of whom 484 qualify for interim payments. 475 of the 484 have received their share of the £19.5 million interim payment announced in June 2022
  • work continues on the remaining payments in complex categories such as those recently deceased and people who have not taken up the offer of an interim payment
• Horizon Shortfall Scheme (HSS):
  • Post Office received 2,417 eligible claims to the HSS before the application closure date of 27 November 2020. Post Office continued to receive late applications after the closure date and in October 2022, the government announced that additional funding would be provided so that these late claimants could be compensated. Post Office has received 291 eligible late claims to date
  • interim payments on the HSS are available before and after claimants receive an offer of compensation. The £87 million paid out on the HSS includes £17.2 million in interim payments to original claimants and £1.6 million in interim payments to late applications

Post Office data

Find further data on:

• compensation for those with overturned convictions
• the Horizon Shortfall Scheme