Guidance

Shortfall Evidence Process

Published 20 May 2026

Shortfall Evidence Process

Post Office will conduct a thorough investigation of its own records for each Horizon Shortfall Scheme (HSS) claim. If any Horizon-related shortfalls are identified from those records, a Fixed Sum Offer (FSO) of £75,000 will be made.

If Horizon-related shortfalls cannot be identified from Post Office’s own records or your written evidence, then we will seek further information from you.  A member of the Remediation Contact Centre (RCC) team will arrange a telephone call with you, and will ask you to recall:

• any information about any shortfalls that you or the person for whom you are applying encountered
• the circumstances relating to those shortfalls

The questions will be in a form to ensure consistency and fairness across the process. We may ask you to supply evidence that supports your account.

Any further information you are able to provide will be considered with the evidence Post Office already has from its own records and your application, in an individual and holistic way.  Again, if any Horizon-related shortfalls are identified from all this evidence, an FSO will be made.

Each case will be considered individually on its own evidence. If, following a review of all available evidence, Post Office determine that there is no shortfall, it will make a provisional no offer and Post Office will seek further information from you. You will have a 3-month period in which to provide any further information in support of your application. The total evidence must show that it was more likely than not that there was a Horizon shortfall.

If you provide any further information in that period, Post Office will reconsider the new evidence together with the information already held.  Again, if any Horizon-related shortfalls are identified, an FSO will be made.

If you indicate that you have no further evidence, or if you provide no further evidence in the 3-month period, or if on all the evidence Post Office determine that there is no shortfall, the case will be forwarded to the Shortfall Independent Reviewer (SIR) for a final decision.

Throughout this process, each claimant will be afforded the benefit of the doubt, that is on the principle that a claim should not be denied solely due to limited evidence. Post Office will seek further information from you, and you must show that it was more likely than not that there was a Horizon shortfall. Post Office accept that how that test might be met will depend on the circumstances of the case.  In these applications, the test may be satisfied with less evidence than would be required in other circumstances.

Applicants are expected to provide information that is accurate and complete to the best of their knowledge. Where it is found that information is incorrect, the application may be refused.

An independent review of no offers: the Shortfall Independent Reviewer (SIR)

Where cases have been through the above process and Post Office consider there is insufficient evidence of any shortfall and no FSO is made, the case will be referred to the SIR for an independent review.

The SIR will review each individual case on the basis of all relevant information and circumstances, again in a holistic way, taking into account the principal of giving the applicant the benefit of the doubt.

The SIR will either confirm that, on the evidence, no FSO should be made, or recommend that an FSO should be made in that particular case.

Once the SIR has decided that no FSO should be made, then there will be no further right of appeal against that decision.

However, if an offer is granted, the applicant will be able to seek permission to appeal their FSO through the Horizon Shortfalls Scheme Appeal (HSSA) Permission to Appeal process, where eligible.

Further guidance and details will be published in due course regarding the role of the SIR. The Department for Business and Trade expects to publish this information before the end of Summer 2026.