Harrods has revised the terms of a compensation scheme to be offered to hundreds of sexual abuse victims of the department store’s former owner, Mohamed al Fayed, ahead of its formal launch this week.
Sky News has learnt that lawyers for Harrods have increased the maximum potential payout for survivors of Mr al Fayed from roughly £330,000 to a sum closer to £400,000, following consultation with claimants’ legal representatives.
Sources said final proposals for the compensation scheme would be published on Monday – although some victims may still face a lengthy wait to receive their payouts.
Harrods, which is owned by a Qatari sovereign wealth fund controlled by the Gulf state’s ruling family, said last year that it was “utterly appalled” by the disclosure that Mr al Fayed had sexually abused numerous female employees during his 25-year ownership of the Knightsbridge store.
People close to the talks about the compensation scheme said the final proposals included general damages lump sums of up to £110,000 or £200,000 – with the higher figure available to claimants willing to submit to psychiatric assessments arranged by the company.
These figures are unchanged from draft proposals which were subject to consultation in recent weeks, although other elements of the proposed compensation payments have been revised upwards, with the effect of increasing the potential maximum sums that could be paid out, the people added.
The redress scheme is being coordinated by MPL Legal, an Essex-based law firm.
Last weekend, Sky News reported the contents of a document produced by MPL Legal which said that victims of Mr al Fayed who chose a “non-medical pathway” – which would not require any form of medical assessment – would be eligible for “general damages limited to compensation for sexual assault of up to £110,000”, with “aggravated damages [of] up to £15,000”, and “wrongful testing fixed payment(s) up to £7,500”.
Claimants who agreed to an assessment by a scheme consultant psychiatrist – referred to in the document as the “medical pathway” – would be eligible for general damages of up to £200,000, further payments equivalent to those potentially awarded to non-medical claimants, as well as treatment costs “past and future supported by the medical report” and a “work impact payment capped at £110,000”.
The “wrongful testing” payments refer to women who were forced to undergo unnecessary and intrusive medical examinations demanded by Mr al Fayed, while the “work impact payments” relate to loss of earnings triggered by, for example, the unjustified termination of victims’ employment at Harrods.
One source said the revised maximum compensation sum to be disclosed on Monday was now expected to be between £350,000 and £400,000.
The requirement to undergo a psychiatric assessment by a medical practitioner selected by Harrods in order to access the largest payouts risks angering claimants who have endured years of psychological trauma after being abused by Mr al Fayed.
A person close to the store said this was a necessary legal step.
External law firms which have been organising separate cases against Harrods are likely to argue that the terms being published on Monday are not sufficiently generous, and impose too many legal restrictions and disclosure obligations on victims of the store’s former owner.
Depending upon how many women submit compensation claims either through the MPL Legal scheme or via another law firm, Harrods’ compensation bill is ultimately expected to run to tens of millions of pounds.
A Harrods spokesperson reissued a statement previously given to Sky News, saying: “It would be premature for us to comment on the nature and details of a scheme that is currently under consultation.
“We are actively inviting the valuable input from Survivors and their legal representatives to establish the final scheme that aims to be survivor-first, trauma-informed, and fair in its approach to compensation.
“Further updates will be provided once the consultation period is complete.”
According to a website set up by MPL Legal for the purposes of administering the scheme, “Harrods and MPL Legal are undertaking a period of consultation regarding the compensation scheme in which we will receive detailed feedback from interested parties, including several legal firms representing survivors, leading Counsel and Dame Jasvinder [Sanghera], the Independent Survivor Advocate”.
“It is anticipated the final compensation scheme will be published and survivors will be able to access application forms from 31 March 2025.”
Mr al Fayed, who died in 2023, owned Harrods for a quarter of a century, selling it in 2010 to Qatar Holding for £1.5bn.
His reign of terror at the Knightsbridge store is thought to have involved hundreds of predominantly young female victims, with former Fulham women’s players also alleging sexual abuse by the billionaire Egyptian.
Mr al Fayed also owned Fulham Football Club, as well as the Ritz Hotel in Paris, for a number of years.
The MPL Legal document previously reported by Sky News said the redress scheme would “provide options for survivors – an alternative route to the court process”, and that it would “hopefully avoid an adversarial approach which also risks retraumatising survivors”.
It added that the scheme would be “as inclusive as possible – we want the scheme to work for as many survivors as we can”.
Under the heading “Scheme principles”, MPL said it represented “an alternative to litigation, but a survivor can leave the scheme at any time and pursue the claim through the court system”.
It said it hoped that law firms engaging with the scheme “will ensure survivors receive 100% of the compensation”.
“The level of compensation available through the scheme has been designed to mirror the court’s approach,” it added.
Last October, lawyers acting for victims of Mr al Fayed said they had received more than 420 enquiries about potential claims, although it is unclear how many more have come forward in the six months since.
