Alan Bates reaches settlement over Post Office Horizon IT scandal | EUROtoday

Post Office campaigner Sir Alan Bates has reached a settlement with the federal government, greater than 20 years after he began campaigning for justice for victims of the Horizon scandal.

Sir Alan led a gaggle of 555 subpostmasters who took half in a landmark authorized motion in opposition to the Post Office.

The sum paid to Sir Alan has not been made public.

Between 1999 and 2015, greater than 900 subpostmasters have been wrongly prosecuted after the defective Horizon IT system indicated shortfalls in Post Office department accounts.

Hundreds extra poured their very own financial savings into their department to make up obvious shortfalls with a purpose to keep away from prosecution.

Marriages broke down, and a few households consider the stress led to severe well being circumstances, dependancy and even untimely loss of life.

A spokesperson for the Department for Business and Trade mentioned: “We pay tribute to Sir Alan Bates for his long record of campaigning on behalf of victims.

“We can affirm that Sir Alan’s declare has reached the tip of the scheme course of and been settled.”

As of September 2025, a total of £1.23bn had been awarded to more than 9,100 sub-postmasters.

Sir Alan first received an offer of redress in January 2024, which he rejected, describing it as “merciless and derisory”.

He was made another offer in May 2024 which he said was around a third of what he had requested. In May of this year, he said that he’d received a third offer for less than 50% of his original claim.

Sir Alan was part of the Group Litigation Order compensation scheme, under which claimants can either receive £75,000 or seek their own settlement.

The Post Office/Horizon scandal reached new heights in the public consciousness last year after Sir Alan’s campaign for justice was portrayed in the ITV drama series Mr Bates vs the Post Office.

The government adopted all but one of the recommendations of a report published following an inquiry into the scandal.

The inquiry detailed the full human impact of the scandal for the first time: the report said that more than 13 people may have taken their own lives as a result of what happened to them.

Earlier this year, Sir Alan accused the government of putting forward a “take it or go away it” offer of compensation amounting to less than half of his claim.

Many victims have previously complained about being forced to accept low offers of compensation, without the benefit of legal help.

Last month, the government announced that all victims who are claiming compensation will now be entitled to free legal advice to help them with their offers.

There are four different compensation schemes, which are aimed at different groups of victims.

Individual eligibility for compensation depends on the particular circumstances of each case.

However, the schemes have been criticised for being too sluggish and sophisticated, with most of the worst-affected victims receiving far lower than their authentic claims.