50 signatures reached
To: CHANCELLOR RACHEL REEVES
NO MORE SUBPOSTMASTERS MUST BE LEFT TO DIE BEFORE RECEIVING FULL AND FAIR COMPENSATION
PETITION IN MEMORY OF ALL THOSE SUBPOSTMASTERS AND SUBPOSTMISTRESSES WHO HAVE DIED WITHOUT REDRESS
As the evidence sessions of the Horizon Post Office Public Inquiry ends this week (November 13th) and before Sir Wyn Williams writes and publishes his report in 2025, we the undersigned feel strongly we must ensure no more Subpostmaster deaths occur before proper compensation is paid to the victims. This compensation must genuinely restore victims to the position they would have been in if the scandal had not happened, for justice to be done and to be seen to be done.
As Nick Wallis, award-winning journalist author of the Great Post Office Scandal said last week:
“Government can make things happen very quickly when it wants or needs to. The lack of urgency in providing compensation for Subpostmasters is hindrance, but as no one is incentivised to move at a reasonable speed, nothing moves at a reasonable speed.
"Blaming 'the process' is a cop out and nowhere near an acceptable excuse”.
Why is this important?
We believe that HM Treasury - civil servants and some ministers, both in this Government and in the previous administration, are responsible for the slow delivery of full and fair compensation for Subpostmasters. Only Rachel Reeves can change this situation now. Trauma has been layered upon trauma for Subpostmasters and their families. The British Public has had more than enough of this. They have heard evidence throughout the Public Inquiry from often highly paid individuals whose common characteristic is incompetence. A monumental amount of public money has been wasted - far more, if one counts salaries, bonuses, vast legal fees and failed IT systems, than will ever be asked for or paid out in compensation.
Politically, we fear public frustration feeds into a boiling resentment that the little people are never heard, nobody in power is accountable and nothing will change.
We want, as with exoneration of convictions, extraordinary parliamentary action with
swift, legal and enforceable penalties placed upon the Treasury and its lawyers by
Parliament.
swift, legal and enforceable penalties placed upon the Treasury and its lawyers by
Parliament.
It is clear that reasonable claims which have assiduously followed guidance, have nevertheless been rejected time and again by lawyers in the Department of Business and Trade and within HM Treasury, and often for inexplicable and occasionally completely unacceptable reasons.
Delays, obfuscation and unreasonable requests for documentation must end.
We are asking for enforceable, penalties to be legislated and applied if, at any time, the Treasury and DBT fail to deliver what is asked for within an agreed time frame between parties, in the same way that service industries are subject to penalties for failure. These might constitute fines where legally possible and in all cases, public censure and or dismissal as the ultimate penalty. Precedent must not play a part in process but what is just and right must guide all settlements.
Note: Over 252 Subpostmasters have died without seeing redress and many of those who had been convicted, had convictions overturned posthumously. Injustice followed them to their graves. The last death we know of at the time this petition was being prepared, was Carol Riddell, a brave and much loved Sunderland Subpostmistress who died on November 5th worried to the end, about debts incurred because of this scandal. We send our deepest condolences to her husband Alan her daughters and grandchildren.
How it will be delivered
This petition aims to reach 500 signatories by Christmas and will be publicised on social media and in the press among Subpostmaster victims, their families, supporters and campaigners across the country. Updates will appear on this petition page about relevant responses and developments.
