MPs must remove the Post Office from its role in managing compensation plans for victims of the Horizon scandal.

MPs say the Post Office should be removed from its role of managing compensation schemes for victims of the Horizon scandal.

Payments not being delivered quickly enough, report says Business and the Commerce select committee said.

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Figures show that only £499 million of the £1.8 billion budgeted has been paid so far.

Committee chairman Liam Byrne said the organization had lost control of the situation.

He said: “What Post office tells us is that they are trying to ensure that people get what is coming to them, but the bottom line is that now people are dying before they get justice, the process is that slow.

“So we think the Post Office has lost control over this, but we just don’t think it’s the right organization to execute any of these plans.

“That’s why we say the Post Office should be removed from the system entirely.”

MPs also raised concerns about the fees paid to the legal teams at the center of the redress plans.

Legal fees have accounted for £136 million of the cost of administering Post Office-run programs since 2020 – 27% of the actual compensation paid.

A Post Office spokesman said last night: “Working alongside the Government, we are focused on paying for the repair as quickly as possible.”