Many MPs and members of the public have asked today whether it should have taken an ITV drama to bring the Horizon Post Office scandal into greater focus?

This evening we heard from Post Office minister Kevin Hollinrake that the government wants to give "full commitment" to getting justice for those who were wrongly convicted, and had their lives ruined.

We're ending our live coverage for today, but you can read more here about the story.

Today's coverage was brought to you by our team in London: Marita Maloney, Jacqueline Howard, Sam Hancock, James Harness, Thomas Mackintosh and Gem O'Reilly.

Image source, Getty Images

We'll shortly be wrapping up our live coverage of the Post Office Horizon software scandal, recently brought into focusd by an ITV drama series.

Here's how the story developed today:

• Prime minister Rishi Sunak defended the government's response to the scandal, but voiced his support for speeding up the compensation process for wrongfully convicted sub-postmasters
• His office said the PM would also support the Honours Forfeiture Committee if it decided to look at revoking former Post Office boss Paula Vennells's CBE
• The comments from the PM's spokesman come after an online petition calling for Vennells to lose her honour reached more than one million signatures
• Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer said it was his belief that all sub-postmaster convictions should be revisited
• We heard from some exonerated sub-postmasters and mistresses who told nightmarish stories of wrongfully being found guilty of fraud, some of whom spent time in prison, became bankrupt or lost their homes as a result
• There have been calls for a mass appeal pathway to exonerations, from First Minister of Scotland Humza Yousef and ex-minister David Davis among others
• Post Office minister Kevin Hollinrake met with Justice Secretary Alex Chalk to discuss ways of speeding up compensation for wrongful convictions, but details of their meeting haven't been made public
• Hollinrake later gave a statement to the House of Commons, vowing the government's full commitment to justice for those wrongfully convicted

Kevin Hollinrake, the Post Office minister, told the House of Commons that justice for the victims of the Horizon IT scandal is his highest priority.

"We have a clear moral duty to right these wrongs to the best of our ability" he said.

The government is providing funding for compensation, he said, but the taxpayer alone would not foot the bill.

Alan Bates a former sub postmaster whose story portrayed in the recent ITV drama, told the BBC he believed a “resolution” to the scandal was “closer”.

“But we still have to keep the pressure on and we have got to push people and we’ve got to get the whole thing moving and keep the momentum,” he said.

Bates said the years it had taken to get to this point had been “frustrating”, but added the ITV show had enabled a “broader audience” to understand what happened.

He said he thought the heightened political attention would build momentum and “hopefully bring speedy resolution, certainly to all those who are still waiting for their financial redress in all of this, which has been so lacking throughout many, many years in their lives”.

“The group has lost 60 or 70 people since we started all this. People need to get on with lives, they need to be able to draw a line under it – they will never forget it, but they have got to be able to get on and unfortunately they do need money to keep them going.

“This money is only what they are owed. This is money to put them back in a position what they would have been had Post Office not done what they did to them.”

“The most important thing is for government to make sure that this financial redress goes through at speed to get it there as soon as possible, not wait, not spend money with lawyers time and time again… get the money out to people now,” he added.

Bates described his experience in the days since the drama aired had been “bananas”.

Hannah Miller
Political correspondent

Image source, ITV

The wheels of government are turning in an attempt to speed up the appeals process for hundreds of sub-postmasters caught up in the Horizon IT scandal.

A sense of urgency in Parliament, which some might suggest has been absent over the 25 years since this scandal was first reported.

Today’s statement in the House of Commons sounded like something of a holding position.

It is entirely understandable that government needs to consult with the judiciary about the measures it puts in place - lives have been ruined and legal precedents are at stake.

But while the Business and Trade minister insisted the Post Office scandal has been his "highest priority" since he took on the role 15 months ago, many are still asking why it took an ITV drama for the case to receive such focus.

Andrew Gwynne, the Labour MP for Denton and Reddish pays tribute to his constituent Della Robinson who was a sub-postmistress at Dukinfield Post Office. She was convicted in 2013 of false accounting.

"It has been quashed as part of the 555 but she lost everything. She lost her shop, she lost her home, she lost her friends and she lost her reputation.

"Heads have to roll because people were in the know at Fujitsu and at the Post Office and lives were destroyed."

Gwynne adds: "A daughter of Denton, Paula Vennells really ought to do the right thing and hand back her CBE."

Dame Maria Miller puts it to Hollinrake that many sub-postmasters who had criminal convictions are refusing to come forward because it would mean taking part in further legal processes, and they have experienced an "understandable collapse of trust in the Post Office and judicial systems".

Can convictions based on Horizon data be quashed given what we now know, without victims having to endure further legal proceedings, she asks.

Hollinrake acknowledges many are not coming forward.

"Ideally, we would like a process that does not require a convicted sub-postmasters to come forward," he says, and shares his hopes that there will be developments on this in the coming days.

Dame Priti Patel asks Hollinrake what scrutiny is occurring over the actions and culpability of Fujitsu, the company behind the Horizon software.

Hollinrake says anybody who is responsible, corporation or individual, should be held to account over the scandal.

The public inquiry should be allowed to run its course, he says, and then blame can be assigned on the findings of the inquiry, and further action taken.

The chair of the Business and Trade select committee Liam Byrne, said "justice delayed is justice denied".

"85% of the convictions have still not been overturned yet it was last spring that the select committee warned that the process was rolling much too slowly and made recommendations for speeding it up.

"Many of those recommendations were rejected, yet tonight the minister has told the house that only now the Lord Chancellor is exploring ways of speeding things up."

Byrne asks for a time frame "for delivering justice to those who have been unfairly convicted?"

"Can those affected expect justice this year or must they wait for many more to have passed away?"

Hollinrake replies saying "most convictions haven't come forward and that is exactly why we are making this statement today."

"Yes absolutely we want to see these issues resolved. We do require victims to bring forward claims and applications to overturn convictions.

"I hope to have good news in the coming days."

Sir David Davis notes the work to provide justice so far, but suggests some restrictions he believes the government should place on the Post Office going forward.

These suggestions include the Post Office being prevented from challenging victims' appeals and stripping away its right to police its own cases.

In reply, Hollinrake says that while some of these matters are outside of the government's control due to the separation of powers, he says "yes" to some of the recommendations and invites Sir David to a meeting to discuss further.

Jonathan Reynolds, the shadow secretary of state for business and trade, describes the Horizon Post Office failure as "a scandal we have been responding to for some time".

He says he welcomes the way the ITV drama "has brought the story to a wider audience and serves as a powerful reminder of the way art can be used to tackle justice."

Reynolds pays tribute to the MPs who have worked to get justice but says there's a lot more to do.

He describes the Horizon scandal as one of the "miscarriages of justice in British history" and something which robbed people of their lives and liberty.

"The Post Office prosecuted innocent people which no amount of compensation can alleviate."

He added: "Justice must be served to those workers and their families and that is why Labour has called for all sub-postmasters to be exonerated in full."

Hollinrake, the Post Office minister, goes on to announce that retired High Court judge Sir Gary Hickinbottom will chair an independent panel to oversee any disputes relating to compensation for sub-postmasters whose convictions have been overturned.

He runs through some of the figures of compensation paid so far, but says this is not just about compensation, it's about restoration "of people's good names and the public's trust in the postal system and in the justice system".

Therefore, it is only right that we get to the bottom of what went wrong, who knew what and when, he says, adding that while the scale of the problem is immense, the government is ready to tackle it and "leave no stone unturned in pursuit of justice."

He then pays tribute to the postmasters who have died since the scandal came to light.

"We stand united not just in memory of those who have suffered but in shared purpose to ensure such a tragedy can never and will never happen again," he concludes.

There is great concern about the role of the Post Office in prosecuting these cases, Hollinrake says, noting the Post Office "quite rightly" decided to stop undertaking private prosecutions against sub-postmasters in 2015.

"If we are to make sure a scandal like this can never happen again, we need to look at the way private prosecutions like these have been undertaken," Hollinrake says.

Any private company can pursue private prosecutions, not just the Post Office, and this is something to be reflected upon by the justice secretary, and a report will come "in due course"

Kevin Hollinrake continues by saying that getting justice has been his "highest priority as minister" and that it should not be the taxpayer alone who "picks up the tab".

He says the government has devised options for resolving outstanding criminal convictions for sub-postmasters affected by the Horizon scandal "with much more pace"

He adds that 93 convictions have been overturned, saying: "When we talk about compensation we have to remember the lives of these families have been ruined forever.

"The government recognises we have a high moral duty to right these wrongs."

He adds: "(The justice secretary) will quite rightly need to speak to senior figures in the judiciary about these options before we put them forward.

Kevin Hollinrake, the Post Office minister, tells the House of Commons the Horizon scandal is "one of the greatest miscarriages of justice in our nation's history".

He says he is "pleased" the ITV drama Mr Bates vs The Post Office has brought understanding of the scandal to a much broader audience, adding that the drama has "reinforced our zeal for seeing justice done as quickly as possible".

Hollinrake says the public inquiry is doing great work in exposing what went wrong, and says 64% of people affected have been compensated.

This is not just a matter of getting justice for those wrongly convicted, he says, overturning their convictions is also key.

"All us on these benches and across the house are unified in our desire to see justice done," he says.

Post Office minister Kevin Hollinrake MP is now speaking about the scandal in the House of Commons.

We'll bring you details of what he says as it happens.

There's no easy way for the government to resolve thispublished at 18:51 Greenwich Mean Time 8 January

18:51 GMT 8 January

Dominic Casciani
Home and legal correspondent

The scale of the Post Office scandal means that there are no easy and quick solutions for the government.

Ministers could advise the King to grant Royal Pardons, once reserved for the condemned as they faced the gallows.

But these would be largely symbolic acts because the government can't, at the stroke of a pen, quash a conviction. That’s because the courts are constitutionally independent - and that means a second option could be difficult too.

Parliament could pass an act declaring that all the Horizon convictions be quashed, but that would be an unprecedented meddling in the work of judges - and it would pave the way for politicians to do it again.

The third option is a mass appeal with a crystal clear submission to Court of Appeal judges that the state no longer believes the convictions should stand. There’s a precedent for this - 39 post office cases were overturned in one go in 2021.

But running such a case would not be easy - and it could still take years to resolve.

The idea of mass exoneration for sub-postmasters and mistresses involved in the Post Office scandal is "very worthy of consideration", the First Minister of Scotland has been saying today.

"It should not have taken a television drama to get the UK government to decide to take action," said Humza Yousaf, speaking in Glasgow.

"The Scottish National Party has been asking for action in relation to Horizon and the injustice done to the sub-postmasters and sub-postmistresses for many, many years," Humza Yousaf said while speaking in Glasgow.

"I think the idea of a mass exoneration is one that is very worthy of consideration."

It comes after former minister David Davis called for Post Office branch managers involved in the scandal to be exonerated, saying they should be able to submit a "mass appeal".

Read more: How the Horizon Post Office scandal has affected Scotland

Earlier today, Tory MP and former cabinet minister Paul Scully spoke to the BBC about the position many of the Post Office scandal victims have been left in.

"These are people's lives," he told BBC Two's Politics Live programme, saying some of those affected had now died, left the country, or even be "chased out of their villages".

Pressed on when those wrongfully convicted may hope to receive the compensation they're entitled to, Scully said it was his understanding that Kevin Hollinrake, the current Post Office minister, "wants [that] done by August this year".

Last September, the government announced that Post Office workers who've had convictions for theft and false accounting overturned would be offered £600,000 each in compensation.

Former sub-postmistress Jo Hamilton's conviction for false accounting was eventually overturned in 2021. She was wrongly accused of stealing £36,000.

She tells BBC Radio 4's Woman's Hour that the Post Office made her think she was the only person having issues with her computer and the Horizon software installed on it.

"We've been battling for so many years and nobody has listened to us," she says, praising the recent ITV drama Mr Bates vs the Post Office for reigniting conversations about the scandal. "People can now see just what has been going on."

Watch her interview below: