Total spending by the Post Office on external lawyers since 2014 has reached £334m, new figures reveal.
A response to a freedom of information request discloses that the organisation paid law firms £25m in 2025/26 for advice on the ongoing compensation schemes for Horizon-related cases. The money does not include the amount spent on defending a claim from former sub-postmaster Lee Castleton, which is ongoing.
The latest spending includes £14.1m paid to international practice Herbert Smith Freehills: the Gazette reported last year that the firm received a ‘transitional’ fee to facilitate a handover of compensation work. In the 12 years since the beginning of group litigation culminating in Bates v The Post Office, Herbert Smith Freehills has been paid £202m for its work on behalf of the organisation.
Pinsent Masons, the firm which took over the work, was paid £5.8m in 2025/26. Other firms which received at least £1m in fees in the last year were DAC Beachcroft, Burges Salmon and Peter & Peters, which has now been paid a total of £53.6m from the Post Office in the last 12 years.
There is no suggestion that any of the firms did not merit the fees they received. It is also notable that external legal spending in 2025/26 has more than halved compared to the previous year.
But those victims of the Post Office scandal who are yet to receive any money – often citing how the organisation has made unreasonable demands for disclosure or documents going back 20 years – will question the policy of paying millions to law firms that could instead have been paid in compensation.
The FoI response reveals that the legal costs of the remediation unit to establish and manage the various redress schemes is around £160m, of which Herbert Smith Freehills (£111m) and Peters & Peters (£45m) have been paid the bulk.
Around 700 people are thought to have been wrongly convicted based on flawed evidence from the Horizon IT system that the Post Office brought in at the turn of the century. Thousands more people have made claims who were either directly affected by the operation of Horizon or have relatives who were affected.
As at the end of last month, the Post Office had paid out more than £1bn through the Horizon Shortfall Scheme. An independent advisory panel of experts assesses scheme claims and recommends fair outcomes.
The Post Office says the panel has a discretion of fairness and may take into account any matters they consider will produce a fair result. Claimants who are unhappy with their offer can dispute it, with independent legal advice reimbursed by the Post Office and an interim payment of up to 100% of the proposed settlement.
Applicants receive an upfront preliminary payment of £200,000 once they are confirmed as eligible for the scheme and have passed ID checks, with the payment being made within 10 working days.
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