Rishi Sunak announces legislation to overturn Post Office scandal convictions

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Rishi Sunak has announced unprecedented emergency legislation to end more than two decades of agony for hundreds of Post Office sub-postmasters convicted in the Horizon scandal.

After years of legal wrangling and delays, Sunak was forced into action by an ITV drama on the scandal, aired only last week, and promised to rush forward primary legislation to quash the convictions en masse.

The UK prime minister vowed to deliver “justice and compensation” for the more than 700 people convicted between 2000 and 2014 of theft or false accounting using flawed data from Fujitsu’s Horizon software.

Downing Street said legislation would be introduced “within weeks” and exonerations delivered by year end to finally address what Sunak called “one of the greatest miscarriages of justice in our nation’s history”

“We will make sure the truth comes to light, rewrite the wrongs of the past,” Sunak told MPs.

He also pledged an “upfront payment of £75,000” for 555 sub-postmasters pursued in civil cases by the Post Office. The group brought a landmark 2019 case that established accounting shortfalls alleged by the Post Office were based on faulty data.

Compensation of at least £600,000 had previously been offered to every sub-postmaster whose conviction for theft or false accounting was overturned. To date, only 93 convictions have been quashed.

MPs and members of the government-appointed Horizon Compensation Advisory Board had urged the government in December to move forward with a blanket exoneration.

Christopher Hodges, chair of the board, said he supported the government’s announcement and that the unprecedented move was in step with the “unusual circumstances” of the Post Office prosecutions.

He added the decision reflected an outpouring of support from the British public and had shown sub-postmasters that “society cares for them”.

Sam Townend KC, chair of the Bar Council, which represents barristers in England and Wales, said: “We will examine the proposals carefully. Anxious care should be taken as to ensuring the independence of the judiciary and the government must be careful about setting legal and constitutional precedent.”

The Post Office scandal has brewed for years under the oversight of Conservative, Labour and Liberal Democrat ministers. Campaigners had criticised successive governments for not resolving the issue.

Kevin Hollinrake, Post Office minister, told MPs sub-postmasters would be required to sign an affidavit declaring their innocence before they were eligible for compensation.

The move is intended to address concerns that guilty individuals will be exonerated and made eligible for compensation.

Hollinrake also said that Fujitsu, the company that provided the Horizon software, would be required to foot some of the bill for compensation if it was identified as “culpable” in the scandal by an ongoing public inquiry.

Government procurement records showed that even after Fujitsu’s software was found to be at fault in the 2019 Court of Appeal case, the company was involved in £4.9bn of solo and joint public sector contracts.

Fujitsu said this week it “apologised for its role in [the sub-postmasters’] suffering” and was committed to supporting the public inquiry, but declined to comment further “out of respect for the inquiry process”.

Any exonerations will apply to convictions in England and Wales.

Humza Yousaf, first minister of Scotland, said the Scottish government would follow suit and exonerate sub-postmasters by either applying the UK legislation or developing separate legislation.

Hollinrake said the UK government would also engage with counterparts in Northern Ireland on the matter.

The Westminster government is also considering whether 54 convictions upheld by the Court of Appeal should also be overturned.

The Horizon scandal has gained renewed attention in recent weeks after an ITV drama about the affair highlighted the campaigning of former sub-postmaster Alan Bates.

Sunak’s spokesperson said the prime minister backed calls for Bates to be given a knighthood.

Bates had previously turned down the offer of an OBE, saying it would be wrong to take it while Paula Vennells, former Post Office chief executive, held on to her CBE. She has now agreed to hand the honour back.