Transparency data

Post Office Horizon financial redress data as of 31 October 2024

Updated 3 December 2024

As of 31 October 2024, approximately £438 million has been paid to over 3,100 claimants across 4 schemes:

• Horizon Shortfall Scheme (HSS): £230 million
• Group Litigation Order (GLO) Scheme: £106 million total value of all payments including interim payments
• Overturned Convictions (OC): £60 million total value of all payments including further interim payments
• Horizon Convictions Redress Scheme (HCRS): £42 million total value of all payments including interim payments

Spend is rounded to the nearest £1 million.

1. Financial redress paid

Diagram 1 shows the cumulative total of redress paid by month and broken down by scheme. As of 31 October 2024, £438 million has been paid in financial redress. This is up from £363 million last month.

Diagram 1: a stacked bar chart showing the cumulative total of financial redress paid each month. The bars are broken down into the 4 redress schemes: HSS, GLO, OC and HCRS.

View the web accessible version of diagram 1.

*The Horizon Convictions Redress scheme was announced in July 2024. The first payments to claimants were made in August 2024 and reported in September 2024.

2. Claim data by scheme

Scheme	Claims received	Offers made	Offers accepted	Claims paid
Overturned Convictions (OC) initial interim payments	107 [-]	107 [-]	107 [+1]	107 [+1]
Overturned Convictions (OC): full and final settlements	75 [-]	65 [+1]	61 [+1]	61 [+1]
Group Litigation Order Scheme (GLO): full and final	306 [+23]	295 [+26]	228 [+17]	221 [+13]
Horizon Shortfall Scheme (HSS): eligible claims before deadline	2,417 [-]	2,417 [-]	2,082 [+6]	2,075 [+3]
Horizon Shortfall Scheme (HSS): eligible late claims	1,850 [+88]	596 [+241]	422 [+183]	379 [+151]
Horizon Convictions Redress Scheme (HCRS): initial interim payments	172 [+104]	172 [+104]	172 [+104]	154 [+107]
Horizon Convictions Redress Scheme (HCRS): full and final	36 [+30]	36 [+30]	36 [+30]	29 [+24]

Information correct as of 31 October 2024.

Changes from last month (30 September 2024) in square brackets.

[-] indicates no change since last month.

2.1 Notes for table

In the claim data by scheme table:

• data regarding the HSS and OC are sourced from Post Office Ltd, which retains full responsibility for the data published on its website
• the HCRS 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 as payments are retrospectively confirmed as received by claimants

2.2 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.

As of 31 October 2024, all 111 eligible claimants have either reached full and final settlement, or received a minimum of £200,000 through interim payments.

A full and final claim is defined as:

• both non-pecuniary and pecuniary claims have been received and sufficiently particularised to substantiate redress payments of £450,000 or more
• or the claimant has requested the £600,000 fixed sum offer

Post Office Ltd have been progressing non-pecuniary settlements first to get money to postmasters as quickly as possible, which means a number of partial settlements have been reached in addition to the full and final settlements published here.

Any individual with a conviction overturned by the Post Office (Horizon System) Offences Act 2024 or the Post Office (Horizon System) Offences (Scotland) Act 2024 will be eligible to seek financial redress via the Horizon Convictions Redress Scheme (HCRS).

2.3 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 redress once their conviction has been overturned. If their conviction has been overturned by the courts, they are eligible under the Overturned Convictions (OC) Scheme. If their conviction has been overturned by the legislation, they are eligible for the Horizon Convictions Redress Scheme (HCRS). 

The remaining 492 postmasters are eligible for the Group Litigation Order scheme, of whom 484 qualify for interim payments.

Efforts are ongoing to distribute the £19.5 million interim payments announced in June 2022. Almost all claimants have received their interim payments, with only a very small number remaining. Work continues to ensure these outstanding payments are completed.

For full and final claims received, the number reported refers to all claims assessed as complete. Further claims may have been received recently but not yet assessed to determine whether they are complete. A claim initially assessed as complete may subsequently be found to require further information and therefore be removed from counts of complete claims received while awaiting this information.

2.4 Horizon Shortfall Scheme (HSS)

The Horizon Shortfall Scheme is open to eligible claimants who suffered a Horizon-related shortfall.

Post Office Ltd received 2,417 eligible claims by March 2021.

The closure date for applications was 27 November 2020, but Post Office Ltd continued to accept applications for the original deadline group up to March 2021.

In October 2022, the government announced that additional funding would be provided so that eligible late claimants could receive financial redress, and the scheme reopened for applications.

Post Office Ltd has received 1,850 eligible late claims to date.

Interim payments on the HSS are available before and after claimants receive an offer of redress.

The £230 million paid out on the HSS includes £31.6 million in interim payments to original claimants and £6.4 million in interim payments to late applications.

On 13 March 2024, the government announced that all eligible HSS claimants with a Horizon shortfall would be entitled to a fixed sum award of £75,000 to settle their claim.

Post Office Ltd continues to make top-up payments to claimants who had previously accepted a full and final offer below the value of £75,000, to bring their total redress to £75,000.

Post Office Ltd have also started to make payments of the full £75,000 fixed sum award to HSS applicants who have not previously received redress but have now accepted this offer. The number and amount of offers and payments made for the full fixed sum are now included in the HSS figures below and in the HSS eligible late claims figures on the ‘Claim data by scheme’ table.

As of 31 October 2024, approximately £97 million has been paid in award top-ups and £75,000 awards.

2.5 Horizon Convictions Redress Scheme (HCRS)

The Post Office (Horizon System) Offences Act 2024 and the Post Office (Horizon System) Offences (Scotland) Act 2024 quashed Horizon-related convictions on a blanket basis in June 2024, according to a set of criteria in the Acts, covering each UK nation.

On 30 July 2024, the UK government announced the launch of the Horizon Convictions Redress Scheme (HCRS), delivered by the Department for Business and Trade, to provide financial redress to postmasters across the UK who had their convictions quashed by the Acts.

Applicants have begun registering for the HCRS and the department is working with the relevant justice authorities to confirm individual applicants’ eligibility for the scheme.

Eligible applicants have a choice of 2 routes to redress: they can either accept a fixed and final sum of £600,000, or they can choose to submit their application to a detailed assessment process.

All eligible applicants are entitled to an initial interim payment of £200,000.

The department is now publishing data on settlements, broken down by initial interim payments and full and final settlements.

3. Current claimant stages, by scheme

In this section is a series of charts showing the current breakdown of the claimant populations for each scheme.

3.1 Overturned Convictions (OC): full and final claims

As of 31 October 2024, there are 111 claimants eligible for financial redress through the OC scheme. From these 111, Post Office Ltd has received 75 full and final claims.

Diagram 2: a pie chart showing the breakdown of claims received against those yet to be received for claimants eligible to receive financial redress under OC.

View the web accessible version of diagram 2.

Of these 75 claims, 61 have been paid and a further 4 have received offers. The remaining 10 are awaiting offers from the Post Office Ltd.

Diagram 3: a stacked bar showing the current application stages of claims received under the OC scheme.

View the web accessible version of diagram 3.

3.2 Group Litigation Order (GLO) Scheme: full and final claims

There are 492 claimants eligible for financial redress through the GLO scheme. As of 31 October 2024, 306 full and final claims have been received.

Diagram 4: a pie chart showing the breakdown of claims received against those yet to be received for claimants eligible to receive financial redress under the GLO scheme.

View the web accessible version of diagram 4.

Of these 306 claims, 221 have been paid and a further 7 have accepted offers and are awaiting payment. Another 67 postmasters have received offers from DBT and the remaining 11 are awaiting offers.

Diagram 5: a stacked bar showing the current application stages of claims received under the GLO scheme.

View the web accessible version of diagram 5.

3.3 Horizon Shortfall Scheme (HSS)

As of 31 October 2024, 4,267 claims for financial redress have been received via the Horizon Shortfall Scheme. This includes applications received before the original deadline, and applications received since the scheme reopened in October 2022.

Of the total 4,267 claims received, 2,454 have been paid and a further 50 have accepted offers and are awaiting payment. 509 claimants are currently in receipt of offers that they haven’t yet accepted and the remaining 1,254 claimants are awaiting offers from the Post Office Ltd.

Diagram 6: a stacked bar showing the current application stages of claims received under the HSS.

View the web accessible version of diagram 6.

3.4 Horizon Conviction Redress Scheme (HCRS): full and final claims

As of 31 October 2024, 36 full and final claims for financial redress have been received via the HCRS. Of these 36 claims, 29 have received payments and the remaining 7 have accepted offers for redress and are awaiting payment from DBT.

Diagram 7: a stacked bar showing the current application stages of claims received under the HCRS.

View the web accessible version of diagram 7.

4. GLO scheme delivery target

The Department for Business and Trade is committed to a target of making a first offer to 90% of claimants who have submitted a full claim within 40 working days. A full claim is defined as a claim which DBT considers, with advice from its legal advisors, does not need any further evidence in order to assess every element of the claim.

Should the department consider further evidence is needed in order to make a full assessment, the 40 working day target will not start until such time that the required evidence is received from the claimant or any other source.

As of 31 October 2024, 90% of claimants received their first offer within 40 working days of submitting a full claim.

5. GLO scheme £75,000 fixed payment impact 

Due to changes made in January 2024, all eligible GLO claimants are now offered the option to settle their claims on a full and final basis for a total fixed sum of £75,000 inclusive of interest, instead of making a claim for their individual losses.

This means that the claim would not be assessed by the department against the process set out in the guidance and principles.

Any payments received from the department to date or from the GLO settlement will be deducted from the £75,000 before payment is made.

As of 31 October 2024, 228 offers have been accepted. 151 of these have accepted offers of the £75,000 fixed payment. Of those who have accepted the £75,000 fixed payment, four-fifths are new claims and a fifth had previously accepted offers.

6. Post Office data

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

DBT 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 Overturned Convictions and financial redress
• updates on the Horizon Shortfall Scheme
• reports on Horizon financial redress

7. Web accessible tables

7.1 Financial redress paid

Month	HSS (£ million)	GLO (£ million)	OC (£ million)	HCRS* (£ million)	Total (£ million)
Aug 23	79	22	21	Not applicable	122
Sep 23	80	22	22	Not applicable	124
Oct 23	83	27	22	Not applicable	132
Nov 23	87	27	24	Not applicable	138
Dec 23	93	27	33	Not applicable	152
Jan 24	98	27	35	Not applicable	161
Feb 24	107	34	38	Not applicable	179
Mar 24	111	39	41	Not applicable	190
Apr 24	113	42	42	Not applicable	196
May 24	122	54	46	Not applicable	222
Jun 24	124	64	49	Not applicable	236
Jul 24	126	80	54	Not applicable	261
Aug 24	144	87	56	1	289
Sep 24	196	97	59	11	363
Oct 24	230	106	60	42	438

*The Horizon Convictions Redress scheme was announced in July 2024. The first payments to claimants were made in August 2024.

7.2 Overturned Convictions (OC): full and final claims

Application status	Number of applications
Claims received	75
Claims to be received	36
Total	111

Application stage	Number of applicants
Claims being assessed	10
Offers made and being considered	4
Offers accepted and awaiting payment	0
Claims paid	61
Total	75

7.3 Group Litigation Order (GLO) Scheme: full and final claims

Application status	Number of applications
Claims received	306
Claims to be received	186
Total	492

7.4 Horizon Shortfall Scheme (HSS)

Application stage	Number of applicants
Claims being assessed	1254
Offers made and being considered	509
Offers accepted and awaiting payment	50
Claims paid	2454
Total	4267

7.5 Horizon Conviction Redress Scheme (HCRS): full and final claims

Application stage	Number of applicants
Claims being assessed	0
Offers made and being considered	0
Offers accepted and awaiting payment	7
Claims paid	29
Total	36