Alan Bates to get multi-million-pound payout over Post Office saga

Publish Workplace campaigner Alan Bates has agreed a multi-million pound compensation determine from the Publish Workplace, sources near the deal have confirmed to the BBC.The payout for Sir Alan comes greater than 20 years after he began campaigning for justice for victims of the Horizon scandal which led a bunch of 555 sub-postmasters launching landmark authorized motion in opposition to the Publish Workplace.The precise sum paid to Sir Alan has not been made public and he has not responded to requests for remark.Between 1999 and 2015, greater than 900 sub-postmasters had been wrongly prosecuted after the defective Horizon IT system indicated shortfalls in Publish Workplace department accounts.Lots of 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 dying.A spokesperson for the Division for Enterprise and Commerce mentioned: “We pay tribute to Sir Alan Bates for his lengthy file of campaigning on behalf of victims.”We will affirm that Sir Alan’s declare has reached the top of the scheme course of and been settled.”As of September 2025, a complete of £1.23bn had been awarded to greater than 9,100 sub-postmasters.Sir Alan first obtained a suggestion of redress in January 2024, which he rejected, describing it as “merciless and derisory”.He was made one other provide in Could 2024 which he mentioned was round a 3rd of what he had requested. In Could of this yr, he mentioned that he’d obtained a 3rd provide for lower than 50% of his authentic declare.Sir Alan was a part of the Group Litigation Order compensation scheme, underneath which claimants can both obtain £75,000 or search their very own settlement.As a part of plan to assert his personal settlement, Mr Bates instructed the BBC his legal professionals had included compensation owed for his 20 years of campaigning for justice for these sub-postmasters caught up within the scandal.The Publish Workplace/Horizon scandal reached new heights within the public consciousness final yr after Sir Alan’s marketing campaign for justice was portrayed within the ITV drama collection Mr Bates vs the Publish Workplace.The federal government adopted all however one of many suggestions of a report printed following an inquiry into the scandal.The inquiry detailed the total human affect of the scandal for the primary time: the report mentioned that greater than 13 folks could have taken their very own lives because of what occurred to them.Earlier this yr, Sir Alan accused the federal government of placing ahead a “take it or depart it” provide of compensation amounting to lower than half of his declare.Many victims have beforehand complained about being compelled to just accept low affords of compensation, with out the advantage of authorized assist.Final month, the federal government introduced that every one victims who’re claiming compensation will now be entitled to free authorized recommendation to assist them with their affords.There are 4 completely different compensation schemes, that are geared toward completely different teams of victims.Particular person eligibility for compensation relies on the actual circumstances of every case.Nevertheless, the schemes have been criticised for being too gradual and sophisticated, with lots of the worst-affected victims receiving far lower than their authentic claims.