Transparency data

Post Office Horizon redress legal costs data as of 30 June 2025

Updated 7 August 2025

1. Legal costs paid in scheme delivery

The following table shows the legal costs for the operational delivery of the Horizon redress schemes. As of 30 June 2025, a total of £100.3 million has been paid in legal costs to administer the schemes.

The figures include any legal costs incurred across scheme set up, claim assessment, facilitation, and dispute resolution. These costs are exclusive of the legal and professional services fees paid on behalf of claimants, presented in section 2.

Scheme	Legal costs (£ million)	As equivalent % of redress paid
Horizon Shortfall Scheme (HSS)	£74.8 [+ £0.5]	12% [-4]
Overturned Convictions (OC)	£17.7 [+ £0.6]	26% [-]
Group Litigation Order (GLO)	£7.5 [+ 0.4]	4% [-1]
Horizon Convictions Redress Scheme (HCRS)	£0.3 [-]	less than 1% [-]
Total	£100.3 [+ £1.5]	9% [-2]

1.1 Notes for table

In this table:

• information correct as of 30 June 2025, subject to audit
• figures are inclusive of non-recoverable VAT
• spend is rounded to the nearest £100,000 – subtotals may not sum to totals due to rounding
• percentages have been rounded to the nearest whole number
• data regarding the HSS and OC is sourced from Post Office Ltd, which retains full responsibility for the data it provides
• the Overturned Convictions (OC) scheme formally closed on 2 June 2025. From 3 June 2025, responsibility for administering redress claims relating to Overturned Convictions has formally transferred from Post Office Ltd to the Department for Business and Trade (DBT). Any OC claims that had not been fully settled as of 3 June 2025 are now being managed under the HCRS. These claims are now reflected in HCRS data
• the HCRS and GLO redress payments data reflects the current position at a point in time – it should be noted that these totals can change slightly as time goes on
• the data on redress paid in the same period can be found in the publication for financial redress data – percentages shown represent the legal fees expressed as an equivalent proportion of the redress paid to claimants as of 30 June 2025

2. Legal and professional services fees paid on behalf of claimants

The following table shows the legal fees and other professional services costs paid on behalf of claimants, separate from the legal costs associated with operational delivery, presented in section 1. As of 30 June, the total professional fees paid was £42.1 million.

The figures include the sums paid to claimant legal representatives, as well as any disbursements to other services an applicant may require to articulate their claim. For example, medical experts, forensic accountants, surveyors, and any other relevant technical experts.

Scheme	Claimant legal fees (£ million)	Disbursements (£ million)	Total professional fees (£ million)	As equivalent % of redress paid
Horizon Shortfall Scheme (HSS)	£3.1	£2.1	£5.2 [+ £1.0]	1% [-]
Overturned Convictions (OC)	£5.6	£1.3	£6.9 [+ £0.2]	10% [-]
Group Litigation Order (GLO)	£10.6	£6.7	£17.2 [+ £0.1]	10% [-1]
Horizon Convictions Redress Scheme (HCRS)	£12.9	£0	£12.9 [+ £2.7]	5% [-]
Total	£32.1	£10.0	£42.1 [+ £4.1]	4% [-]

2.1 Notes for table

In this table:

• information correct as of 30 June 2025, subject to audit
• figures are inclusive of non-recoverable VAT
• spend is rounded to the nearest £100,000 – subtotals may not sum to totals due to rounding
• percentages have been rounded to the nearest whole number
• data regarding the HSS and OC are sourced from Post Office Ltd, which retains full responsibility for the data it provides
• the Overturned Convictions (OC) scheme formally closed on 2 June 2025. From 3 June 2025, responsibility for administering redress claims relating to Overturned Convictions has formally transferred from Post Office Ltd to DBT. Post Office Ltd is responsible for paying claimant legal fees incurred to 2 June, while costs incurred from 3 June onwards will be paid by DBT and recorded in HCRS data
• the HCRS and GLO redress payments data reflect the current position at a point in time – it should be noted that these totals can change slightly as time goes on
• the data on redress paid in the same period can be found in the publication for financial redress data. Percentages shown represent the professional fees expressed as an equivalent proportion of the redress paid to claimants as of 30 June 2025

3. Horizon Shortfall Scheme (HSS)

The Post Office launched the Horizon Shortfall Scheme for current and former postmasters in May 2020, which closed to formal applications in August 2020. There was an extension until November 2020 for applications following a clarification on the eligibility criteria. The scheme remains open to late applications.

Claimants can claim funding for legal support on receipt of their offer.  

Reasonable legal fees (including advice on bankruptcy and insolvency if applicable) are reimbursed should claimants wish to dispute a full assessment offer.

4. Group Litigation Order (GLO) scheme

The GLO scheme launched in March 2023 and is an ex gratia claims-based scheme, delivered by DBT, for postmasters who were part of the action Alan Bates and Others v Post Office Ltd pursued under a Group Litigation Order, and who do not have a Horizon-related conviction.

The government has agreed to meet the reasonable legal costs of members of the GLO claiming for additional compensation under the scheme. Claimable costs are set out in the tariff of reasonable legal costs.

5. Horizon Convictions Redress Scheme (HCRS)

The Horizon Convictions Redress Scheme (HCRS) provides financial redress to those postmasters whose convictions were quashed by Post Office (Horizon System) Offences Act 2024 or Post Office (Horizon System) Offences (Scotland) Act 2024.

The scheme is open on a UK-wide basis and is administered by the Department for Business and Trade. 

Eligible individuals are encouraged to seek legal representation to advise them throughout the process. 

DBT will cover reasonable legal costs. We have a legal costs framework, which sets out how much of the costs we will cover depending on the type of application.

We strongly advise that claimants check that a solicitor is happy to operate within the terms of the costs framework before instructing them. If a claimant hires a solicitor who does not commit to work within our costs framework, they could pursue the claimant for some of their fees from the financial redress settlement.  

The Horizon Convictions Redress Scheme (HCRS): legal cost framework lists the firms which have agreed to work within the terms of the costs framework. This means they have also committed not to make any deductions from the financial redress settlement claimants receive.

6. Overturned Convictions (OC) scheme

The Overturned Convictions scheme formally closed on 2 June 2025. From 3 June 2025, responsibility for administering redress claims relating to Overturned Convictions has formally transferred from Post Office Ltd to DBT.

Prior to the OC scheme closing, there were 111 claimants eligible for financial redress who had their convictions overturned by the courts. As of 31 October 2024, all 111 eligible claimants had either reached full and final settlement or received a minimum of £200,000 through interim payments.

The 40 claims not fully settled as of 2 June 2025 are now being administered through the Horizon Convictions Redress Scheme (HCRS). All future legal costs incurred on these outstanding claims will be reported under the HCRS as part of these monthly publications.

7. Post Office data

This data is part of DBT’s Post Office Horizon financial redress data collection.

The department publishes independent reports, written by Dentons, on the GLO scheme.

The Ministry of Justice publishes Post Office (Horizon System) Offences Act 2024: Quashed convictions management information.

Post Office Ltd also publishes:

• updates on the Horizon Shortfall Scheme
• reports on Horizon financial redress