Chris Head is a former sub-postmaster and one of the hundreds of people wrongly accused of theft and fraud. He has been campaigning about this issue for many years.

He tells the BBC that the emergency legislation to exonerate the victims announced by Rishi Sunak was “fabulous news”.

The justice system, as it is, would be unable to deal with the hundreds of unsafe convictions, he says, because it would take 10 or 15 years to get them overturned.

Head is still fighting for the full financial compensation he deserves, he says, adding that it should not have taken an ITV drama to force the government to take action.

"Why has it taken an outrage from the public that the government had no choice but to act? This story has been out there for 20 years. We could have had this dealt with well before now."

Earlier, Post Office Minister Kevin Hollinrake gave details of the compensation scheme for those affected by the Post Office scandal.

As far as possible, he says, the government wants to ensure that "guilty people" do not walk away with hundreds of thousands of pounds of taxpayer money.

Downing Street says its ambition is to complete the process of overturning the convictions of those affected by the Post Office scandal by the end of the year.

The prime minister's spokesman says that the government aims to "introduce the legislation within weeks" and "we are confident it will be well supported".

As we reported earlier, Rishi Sunak's official spokesman said all convictions would be quashed on a "blanket basis".

Lord Ken Macdonald - director of public prosecutions from 2003-08, before Sir Keir Starmer took over - says it's "unprecedented" for the government to overturn the convictions of the victims of the Post Office scandal.

Speaking to Radio 4's World at One programme, Macdonald also points to there being a "serious rule of law implications".

He worries how the blanket overturning of convictions - done for the "best of reasons" in this case - will be used as a precedent for other cases in the future. "Once the dam is burst", it's unclear what process may be used in the future, he says.

The challenge for the government now is to "draft some legislation that separates out the Horizon cases, otherwise the innocent postmasters, from the non-Horizon cases," Macdonald tells the BBC.

Image source, Reuters

Horizon was introduced into the Post Office network from 1999. The software, developed by the Japanese company Fujitsu, was used for tasks such as transactions, accounting and stocktaking.

Sub-postmasters and mistresses complained about bugs in the system after it reported shortfalls.

Some attempted to plug the gap with their own money because their contracts stated they were responsible for the shortfalls.

So far, nobody at the Post Office, or at Fujitsu, has been held accountable. The Horizon system is still used by the Post Office - which describes the latest version as "robust".

• You can read more about this here

An unprecedented act of Parliamentpublished at 14:22 Greenwich Mean Time 10 January

14:22 GMT 10 January

Dominic Casciani
Home and legal correspondent

This plan is unprecedented because it will involve Parliament taking from judges, who are legally independent from politicians, the power to decide who is innocent and who is guilty.

What makes it even more remarkable is that there will not only be no consideration of the facts behind each Post Office conviction but a form allowing any applicant to self-certify they are innocent.

The government has made a political choice that creating a way to quash convictions by ministerial order is the morally best option to end the scandal.

It has calculated that it can withstand criticisms that this interferes with the independence of the courts - something ministers are sworn to uphold.

But it’s not as simple as that. For a start, a question mark hangs over what will happen to those convicted in Scotland and Northern Ireland.

Secondly, it is not clear where the plan will leave at least 50 people who have already been told by the Criminal Cases Review Commission they have no chance of having their conviction overturned.

And there is a deeper constitutional question: once this injustice is corrected, will another government, on another day, be once again tempted to override the independent courts?

Image source, ITV

Downing Street has said campaigner Alan Bates would be deserving of an honour for his work on the Post Office IT scandal.

Asked if Rishi Sunak will consider nominating him for an honour, the prime minister’s press secretary said that, while there is a formal process for honours, “it’s hard to think of someone more deserving of being rewarded through the honours system than him”.

Labour has also it would support an honour for Bates.

Asked about the issue on BBC Radio 4’s World at One programme earlier, Bates said: “It’s not about me. It’s about the whole group, and it’s about getting this money out to people as soon as possible.”

Image source, Reuters

Alan Bates – who inspired the ITV drama Mr Bates vs The Post Office – calls today’s announcement “another positive step forward”, but insists there is more work to be done to ensure all those impacted by the scandal receive adequate compensation.

He says those with larger claims - above the £75,000 offer announced by the government - are the ones that need to have their cases resolved.

“They’ve lost their houses, their businesses, their earning capacity,” he tells BBC Radio 4’s World at One programme.

He says that while he’s been frustrated by the lack of progress, he’s pleased to see there is now cross-party action being taken in Parliament.

“The devil is in the detail, and we’ve yet to see that,” he says of the government’s announcement today. “We’re still going to have to keep pushing the issue forward.”

Asked about his plans next, he says a book might be possible in the future, and jokes: “Mr Bates goes on holiday is possibly the next thing.”

A former engineer at Fujitsu - the company that designed the Horizon accounting system, which falsely indicated sub-postmasters were taking money from the tills - twice asked for guarantees that his testimony to the Post Office IT Inquiry would not be used against him, the inquiry confirmed to BBC Radio 4's World At One programme.

The engineer Gareth Jenkins applied for immunity in October 2022 and again in August 2023, according to The Telegraph. Both requests were denied by inquiry chair Sir Wyn Williams.

Jenkins's testimony was crucial to the convictions of sub-postmasters, and was repeatedly used by Post Office lawyers to say that the Fujitsu-designed system was working correctly.

Tim Brentnall, who we heard from earlier, ran a Post Office in Pembrokeshire until a £22,000 shortfall was discovered at his branch. Like many others, he was advised to plead guilty and was given an 18-month suspended sentence, plus 200 hours of community service. He was eventually cleared in 2021.

Speaking to the BBC after the announcement of a new law to "swiftly exonerate and compensate victims" of the scandal, Brentnall says he hopes "words [will] translate into actions now":

Brentnall says it's "fantastic news" to hear that the government will "start to compensate the GLO victims, who had almost been left behind with nowhere to turn".

More now from Downing Street, with the prime minister's spokesman telling reporters that the scale of the Post Office Horizon scandal means it requires "exceptional" circumstances.

He says a blanket quashing (which we explain in our previous post) to clear the names of the hundreds of people whose convictions still stand is "not something that we do lightly".

"We do recognise the vital importance of the independence of the judiciary, that's why we don't take this step lightly and we have consulted with the judiciary," the spokesman says, referring to meetings that took place between Justice Secretary Alex Chalk and Post Office Minister Kevin Hollinrake earlier this week.

He adds:

We're hearing from Rishi Sunak's official spokesman now, who's giving more detail about how the government's plan to exonerate convicted sub-postmasters and postmistresses will work.

He says it will be done on a "blanket basis", which should clear people's names while "making sure they access the compensation they rightly deserve as quickly as possible, instead of waiting for years for the courts to wade through hundreds of convictions".

It comes after Post Office minister Kevin Hollinrake told the Commons earlier that he had looked “very carefully” at the issue of individual exoneration, but that such an approach is time consuming and would add “further burdens” to those who have already suffered.

"We will, in the coming days, consider whether to include the small number of cases that already have been considered by the Appeal Courts", Sunak's spokesman says, adding that postmasters who played a crucial role in first exposing the scandal will also receive the compensation they deserve.

Image source, Parliament TV

That was another big flurry of information - let's take a step back and remember what Post Office Minister Kevin Hollinrake just told MPs.

Self-certification:

All former sub-postmasters and postmistresses seeking to claim for exoneration and compensation will have to sign a statement confirming they did not commit crimes.

"Anyone falsely signing this will be subject for prosecution for fraud," Hollinrake told the Commons. "An honest postmaster will have his or her conviction overturned."

New legislation:

Hollinrake repeated Rishi Sunak's announcement earlier, saying the government intends to bring forward a new law "as soon as we can to overturn the convictions of all those convicted in England or Wales on the basis of Post Office evidence given during the Horizon scandal".

Compensation:

A group known as the 555 - who successfully challenged the Post Office over the Horizon accusations at the High Court in 2019 - are going to be made an upfront offer of £75,000. People could also choose to have a full assessment for more compensation.

"Not easy" for the government:

Whatever route the government takes, exonerating all victims of the Post Office scandal will not be easy and is "not a decision we take lightly", the minister said, adding there's a risk "we end up with unjust acquittals instead of unjust convictions".

Shadow business secretary Jonathan Reynolds says he recognises that the scheme to redress the injustice of the Post Office scandal is not perfect, calling it an "unprecedented scandal" that requires an "unprecedented response."

Reynolds stresses that it is essential the government addresses the injustices and gives the victims the requisite compensation quickly.

He says that victims "cannot continue to wait years" to be compensated.

Former cabinet minister and senior Tory MP David Davis says that while government has responded to “ensure swift justice”, there are those among the sub-postmasters who want “individual exoneration” rather than a grand pardon.

He also asks if Fujitsu – the company in charge of the Horizon IT system – will be asked to meet some of the costs, and if the government will accelerate investigations for those found guilty by perverting the course of justice.

In response, Kevin Hollinrake says he has looked “very carefully” at the issue of individual exoneration, but that such an approach is time consuming and would add “further burdens” to those who have already suffered.

“We saw this as the lesser of two evils,” he says of the new legislation.

On the issue of who would pay for compensation, he says it’s important to wait for the outcome of the inquiry, which he says is expected to publish its findings before the end of this year.

Hollinrake admits there is still "plenty more work to do" and explains the government needs to prepare the legislation, and he will be meeting an advisory board later today.

"We are engaging Scottish and Northern Irish administrations," he says, advising that the judicial cases in these parts of the UK are devolved.

Moving towards the end of his address, Hollinrake says he is "well aware of imperfections".

But he tells critics to ask themselves what they would do otherwise.

Post Office Minister Kevin Hollinrake says those claiming for exoneration and compensation will have to sign a statement confirming they did not commit crimes.

"All we ask is that as part of claims for compensation they sign a statement to the effect that they did not commit the crimes," Hollinrake says.

"Anyone falsely signing this will be subject for prosecution for fraud. An honest postmaster will have his or her conviction overturned."

He adds that the government intends to bring forward legislation "as soon as we can to overturn the convictions of all those convicted in England or Wales on the basis of Post Office evidence given during the Horizon scandal".

"We recognise this is an exceptional step, but these are exceptional circumstances," he tells MPs.

The government will work to avoid "guilty people walking away" with public money, he adds.

Post Office Minister Kevin Hollinrake outlines the difficulty in trying to exonerate all victims of the Post Office Horizon scandal.

Overturning all the convictions is "not a decision we can take lightly", he says.

It could create the risk of a different source of injustice, Hollinrake says, adding he "cannot tell the House that all those prosecuted were indeed innocent".

The risk is that we could end up with "unjust acquittals" instead of "unjust convictions".

"The only way we can know for sure is if we retry every case," he says.

Post Office Minister Kevin Hollinrake is now addressing the House of Commons, and reiterates that members of the GLO group of sub-postmasters will be made an upfront offer of £75,000.

This will save them from going through a full assessment, he says, but those who believe they are entitled to more can continue with the full assessment.

The GLO is a group of 555 sub-postmasters and mistresses who successfully challenged the Post Office over the Horizon accusations at the High Court in 2019 - there's more on them here.

Image source, House of Commons

That's it for Prime Minister's Questions, but we're not finished yet.

Up next we'll hear an urgent question from former cabinet minister and senior Tory MP David Davis on the Post Office Horizon scandal.

Kevin Hollinrake, the minister responsible for the Post Office, will answer it.