Emergency law introduced to exonerate Horizon sub-postmasters in Scotland

Emergency legislation that will clear the name of Scottish sub-postmasters wrongly convicted during the Horizon scandal has been introduced at Holyrood.

Scottish Justice Secretary Angela Constance said lives had been “ruined” as convictions based on the faulty IT system used by the Post Office.

“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,” she stated.

The Post Office (Horizon System) Offences (Scotland) Bill will result in those who were wrongly convicted being exonerated and, with their convictions quashed, they will then be able to access the UK Government financial redress scheme.

The legislation has been introduced by the Scottish Government after the UK Government refused to extend the Bill it introduced in the wake of the Horizon scandal to cover Scotland.

And while it will proceed through Holyrood on an expedited basis, the Scottish Government said its Bill would not receive final approval until after UK legislation.

Constance said this meant MSPs would be able to take account of any changes made to the UK Bill when considering the Scottish legislation.

She insisted that “quickest, easiest route” to deal with Horizon related miscarriages of justice north of the border would have been for Scotland to be included in the scope of the UK Government’s Bill.

Constance said: “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.

“The quickest, easiest route to overturn these miscarriages of justice would have been for the UK Government to extend their Post Office (Horizon System) Offences Bill to cover sub-postmasters in Scotland.

“However, our repeated requests for this were refused.”

The Justice Secretary said the Bill introduced at Holyrood “mirrors that of UK legislation to ensure parity for affected sub-postmasters in Scotland with those elsewhere in the UK and to ensure access to the UK Government’s compensation scheme”.

Constance insisted: “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.

“This will ensure that MSPs can take account of any amendments made to the UK Bill.”

The Bill will not apply to sub-postmasters whose conviction has been considered by the High Court in connection with an appeal.

The planned law will exonerate convicted sub-postmasters with relevant convictions between 23 September 1996 and 31 December 2018.

Scottish Conservative justice spokesman Russell Findlay said: “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.”

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