Victims of the Post Office Horizon scandal continue to suffer as they await compensation due. The Horizon accounting system erroneously recorded shortfalls of cash in local Post Office branches over its more than 20-year lifetime. The Post Office blamed many of these shortfalls on sub postmasters and sub postmistresses, despite it being the Horizon system that was at fault. Staff were dismissed, the Post Office took action to attempt to recover the ‘losses’, and in some cases criminal prosecutions were pursued and people were wrongly convicted. The Department 8 Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy Annual Report and Accounts 2021–22 expects to provide £579 million to the Post Office so that it can compensate victims of the Horizon scandal while continuing to operate as a going concern. Through one of two compensation schemes, the Department stated that 90% of compensation offers (not payments) had been made by mid-November 2022; however, recent media reports have indicated some victims receiving only partial payments and still being owed huge sums. The Department described these as the most challenging cases involving bankruptcy or insolvency, and said that it was taking professional advice. Recommendation 7: The Department should write to the Committee alongside its Treasury Minute response to provide details of the total value of payments made to date and the proportion of the total payments that this represents. This should be for both the Historical Shortfall and Historical Convictions schemes and indicate when it expects all claims to be settled. Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy Annual Report and Accounts 2021–22 9 1 Effective Parliamentary and public scrutiny