Ministers are being urged to do whatever it takes to clear the remaining claims in the Horizon Shortfall Scheme by the end of this year.

The business and trade select committee’s also urging Fujitsu, which developed the software, to make an interim payment “immediately” for those subpostmasters affected.

Hundreds were wrongly convicted of theft between 1999 and 2015 after the Horizon system wrongly showed missing money from their branches.

Former West Byfleet postmistress Seema Misra was wrongly convicted in 2010 while pregnant and served four months in jail.