New law will clear Post Office scandal victims

Emergency legislation to clear victims of the Horizon Post Office scandal is being introduced by the Scottish government.

Sub-postmasters wrongly convicted because of faulty Horizon IT systems will be automatically exonerated if the bill is passed.

The Scottish government said the process of passing the new laws would be speeded up so victims could get redress as quickly as possible.

The scandal involved people running post offices being accused of crimes such as theft, false accounting or embezzlement on the basis of a faulty IT system called Horizon, which operated from 1996 until 2018.

Figures from the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service show that about 60 convictions in Scotland involved involved Horizon evidence.

The UK government has already introduced legislation that does not include Scotland.

The Scottish government said "relevant convictions" would be automatically quashed on the day the legislation comes into force and those affected would have access to access the UK government financial redress scheme.

The Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission (SCCRC), which investigates possible miscarriages of justice, wrote to potential victims in 2020.

So far in Scotland, 19 people have come forward asking for their convictions to be quashed.

Six of those people have been cleared and two cases are currently going through the courts.

In January, the Lord Advocate Dorothy Bain KC, Scotland’s top law officer, told MSPs that not every case involving Horizon evidence would be a miscarriage of justice and each case must be considered carefully and with regard to the law.

She said it was important to recognise the important and established constitutional role of the Appeal Court in Scotland and that due process must be followed.

This proposed legislation means that eligible people who have not applied to the SCCRC would have their convictions quashed and have access to compensation without going through the courts.

Justice Secretary Angela Constance said the Post Office (Horizon System) Offences (Scotland) Bill mirrored UK legislation to "ensure parity for affected sub-postmasters in Scotland with those elsewhere in the UK" and give access to the UK compensation scheme.

“Innocent sub-postmasters had their lives ruined by being wrongly convicted of offences of dishonesty on the evidence of the faulty Post Office Horizon system," she said.

“The scale of the scandal and the length of time that the victims have waited for justice means we are taking an unprecedented step of introducing legislation to right this terrible wrong and asking parliament for it to be processed as an emergency bill.

"The Scottish government will not do anything to jeopardise equality and parity for victims, so the final stage of the bill cannot be considered in the Scottish Parliament until after the UK legislation has been passed."

She added that MSPs could then take account of amendments made to the UK legislation.

Scottish Conservative justice spokesman Russell Findlay said the legislation was welcome and long overdue.

He added: “SNP ministers knew from the outset that Scotland’s distinct legal system and prosecution mechanism required a separate law to deliver justice to Scottish sub-postmasters.

“But instead of getting on and delivering it, the SNP typically wasted time on a constitutional spat with the UK government, as well as creating confusion on whether they backed blanket exonerations.

“Given that this legislation looks to be largely a copy-and-paste job, Scottish victims of this appalling scandal have needlessly been kept in the dark for longer than those in the rest of the UK.”

A spokesperson for the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service said the Lord Advocate had said in her statement to the Scottish Parliament in January that the Crown was continuing to use the existing mechanisms to address miscarriages of justice in Scotland.

The spokesperson added: “She rejected the proposition that she had the authority to facilitate an approach to blanket exonerations through the court. She did not comment on convictions being set aside by legislation.

“The Lord Advocate will make another statement to update the Scottish Parliament on progress in dealing with appeals against conviction involving Horizon evidence."