POH-8 Response Accepted Self-assessed

Require HSS first offers match Independent Advisory Panel recommendation

Recommendation

In HSS the Post Office shall be obliged to make, and the Department shall be obliged to approve (when necessary) a first offer to a claimant which is no less than the sum recommended by the Independent Advisory Panel.

Published Evidence Summary
The following publicly available evidence relates to this recommendation:
According to the Government response to the Post Office Horizon IT Inquiry report (volume 1) (October 2025), the Department for Business and Trade accepted this recommendation in October 2025, stating that no first offer in the Horizon Shortfall Scheme (HSS) had ever been made for less than the sum recommended by the Independent Advisory Panel, thus requiring no retrospective changes. According to the Gov.uk progress report (2026-03-02), the scheme documents were updated to formally reflect this obligation, and claimants are informed of this upon receiving their offers. According to the Business and Trade Select Committee (2026-01-06), the Business and Trade Select Committee confirmed in January 2026 that this requirement had not needed retroactive enforcement.
How was this assessed?
Assessed by gemini-2.5-flash on 19 Mar 2026
Checked data held on this site (government responses, progress updates, independent evidence)
External sources searched: www.gov.uk, www.legislation.gov.uk, hansard.parliament.uk
Jurisdiction
UK-wide
Response
Accepted
Accepted Department for Business and Trade
09 Oct 2025

Department for Business and Trade accepts this recommendation. In HSS the Post Office is obliged to make, and the Department obliged to approve (when necessary), first offers to claimants which are no less than the sum recommended by the Independent Advisory Panel. This does not require any retrospective changes as no first offer has ever been made which is less than the sum recommended by the Panel. The scheme documents have been updated to formally reflect this requirement.

Read Full Response
Progress Timeline
Official Report
02 Mar 2026

No first offer has ever been made which is less than the sum recommended by the HSS Panel. Claimants are informed of this upon receipt of their offer.

Source
Official Report
31 Jan 2026

Verification: Government published formal response to Volume 1 recommendations on 13 October 2025, accepting 17 of 18 recommendations. Total compensation paid across all schemes: £1.38 billion as of December 2025. Volume 2 of Final Report expected 2026.

Source
Published Evidence

Published assessments of implementation progress from inspectorates, select committees, official progress reports, and other sources. Check the source type badge to see whether each assessment is independent or government self-reported.

Confirmed Completed
06 Jan 2026
Business and Trade Select Committee Select Committee

Business and Trade Select Committee heard that no first offer had ever been made in HSS below the sum recommended by the Panel, meaning the requirement in this recommendation had not needed to be enforced retroactively.

View detailed findings

Business and Trade Committee held an evidence session on 6 January 2026 with witnesses from Fujitsu, the CCRC, DBT and MoJ. The CCRC revealed Horizon software may have been installed earlier than previously believed, potentially expanding the pool of eligible convictions. Over 4,000 claimants were still awaiting final settlement across all schemes at that date. Government accepted only 3 of 17 committee recommendations in full.

Business and Trade Committee evidence session, 6 … View Source
Source
Inquiry Post Office Horizon Inquiry
Report Post Office Horizon IT Inquiry: Final Report 08 Jul 2025
View Source
Responsible Bodies
Department for Business and Trade Primary
Themes & Tags
Post Office Horizon compensation gaps HSS Compensation First Offers
Recommendation age 0.7 yr
Last formal update 02 Mar 2026