We need your help now
Support from readers like you keeps The Journal open.
You are visiting us because we have something you value. Independent, unbiased news that tells the truth. Advertising revenue goes some way to support our mission, but this year it has not been enough.
If you've seen value in our reporting, please contribute what you can, so we can continue to produce accurate and meaningful journalism. For everyone who needs it.
Sign in. It’s quick, free and it’s up to you.
An account is an optional way to support the work we do. Find out more.
By continuing, you are indicating that you accept our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy.
BRITISH PRIME MINISTER Rishi Sunak has announced that his government will introduce primary legislation to ensure subpostmasters who were wrongfully convicted because of the Horizon scandal are “exonerated and compensated”.
Those convicted could have their names cleared by the end of the year.
Sunak said that the scandal is “one of the greatest miscarriages of justice in [Britain's] history”.
“People who worked hard to serve their communities had their lives and reputations destroyed through absolutely no fault of their own.
“We will make sure the truth comes to light, we will right the wrongs of the past, and the victims will get the justice they deserve,” the British prime minister said.
Rishi Sunak is facing MPs for Prime Minister’s Questions this afternoon in Westminster.
To the victims of the Horizon scandal. pic.twitter.com/jK9txzq9IU
— Rishi Sunak (@RishiSunak) January 10, 2024
The Government says compensation has been paid to more than 2,700 claimants, but hundreds were also prosecuted over shortfalls in their branches caused by software errors.
Another 130 people have come forward after an ITV show dramatised what has been described as the most widespread miscarriage of justice in British history, postal services minister Kevin Hollinrake said today.
A minister will be called to the Commons to provide a statement on the situation later today in response to an urgent question.
Yesterday, former UK Post Office boss Paula Vennells said she will hand back her CBE following the fall out of the scandal.
The former chief executive, who ran the Post Office while it routinely denied there was a problem with its Horizon IT system, was appointed a CBE in December 2018.
It comes after demands for her to return the honour intensified after an ITV drama brought the widespread miscarriage of justice back into the spotlight.
More than 1.2 million people have signed a petition calling for her to be stripped of the honour.
More than 700 Post Office branch managers were convicted after faulty Fujitsu accounting software Horizon made it look like money was missing from their shops.
A public inquiry into the scandal is ongoing.
The usual method for overturning a conviction would be through the Criminal Cases Review Commission sending it to the Court of Appeal for a hearing.
But the unprecedented scale of the Horizon scandal means the government is pursuing a legislative route rather than the court process.
A spokesman for the judiciary said: “Any miscarriage of justice is a matter of great concern. The criminal courts have dealt expeditiously with all Post Office appeals and will continue to do so with any further cases which are brought before them.
“Any legislation in relation to such cases is a matter for Parliament and not for the judiciary.”
The Royal Mail is owned by the taxpayer, I do agree that Fujitsu should be made accountable, as should previous Royal Mail board members.
@Jack Cass: If this had been a private company, this would never have happened.
The Vendor would never have gotten away with ignoring Client reports of data corruption etc., nor been allowed to have such atrocious lack of logging and maintaining of backups.
I can’t help but feel Fujitsu took advantage of the lack of understanding of these things that most in the Royal Mail would have had.
I also don’t understand how you can convict someone of stealing when they couldn’t prove the data was accurate! Those being convicted were not permitted to challenge the data because the data wasn’t being maintained OR even accessible.
@Jack Cass: Were the board told there was overwhelming evidence of crime being committed though?
@Mick Duvanny: At what point, in your opinion, does the buck stop?
@Jack Cass: Royal Mail is a private company. It was sold by the UK government.
Post Office is owned by the UK government.
How do you compensate for the people who committed suicide? Compensate for lost lives, broken marriages, loss of good name? Post Office and British taxpayers will have to dig deep and somehow I can’t see this saga ending to everyone’s satisfaction.
Its says everything that it took a TV drama of the scandal to get anybody to do anything about this.
What’s he going to do about the CPS that prosecuted all these people?
How did no one there have the most basic thought ‘another postmaster? Something ain’t right here’. But then again, British justice….
Look what the British legal system done to Irish citizens convicted of bombings,locked up for donkeys years without a single shred of evidence against them.British justice has a lot to answer for !
@Jb Walshe: Look up Victor Neylon, Irish man working as a postman in the UK. 17 years for a crime he didn’t commit. Convicted on the scantest evidence.
No compensation for miscarriage of justice either as May changed the rules. You have to prove to the Home Office’s satisfaction, not a Court or jury, that not only are you not guilty but also that you are completely innocent of the crime.
Neylon lived alone and had no alibi, so despite no DNA evidence, no eye witness or camera footage linking him to the crime, he couldn’t prove his innocence. An impossible burden to prove.
Like Leo varadkr Rishi thinks the genocide of Palestenian people is fine
I haven’t seen the programme or read much about this case so might have missed something, but what I can’t understand is how the police or the prosecution service couldn’t see the unusual high amount of people ‘committing alleged crimes’ in the one industry and cop on that maybe/surely there is something else at play here!!???
have your say