Rishi Sunak has announced a plan to grant an unprecedented blanket acquittal for hundreds of post office operators wrongly convicted in the Horizon IT scandal.
First announced at prime minister’s questions, officials said legislation would be introduced “within weeks” with a view to granting the acquittal this year. Sunak said the aim would be “to make sure those convicted are swiftly exonerated and compensated”.
The announcement, which comes less than a week after the last episode of the ITV drama Mr Bates vs the Post Office was broadcast, could finally bring a rapid end to the long fight for compensation by an estimated 900 people who were wrongly convicted of theft.
“This is one of the greatest miscarriages of justice in our nation’s history,” Sunak told MPs. “People who worked hard to serve their communities had their lives and their reputations destroyed through absolutely no fault of their own. The victims must get justice and compensation.”
He added: “We will make sure that the truth comes to light, we right the wrongs of the past and the victims get the justice they deserve.”
The bill, which is believed to be the first time parliament will be asked to overturn the verdicts of multiple courts, comes in response to alarm at the slow pace at which staff have been exonerated by the criminal review process.
Sunak’s official spokesperson said the legislation would clear people “on a blanket basis, clearing people’s names and 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”.
Setting out details of the plan in answer to an urgent Commons question immediately after Sunak spoke, Kevin Hollinrake, the business minister with responsibility for postal services, conceded that the bill could lead to some people fraudulently claiming compensation. But he added this was a price worth paying given the scale of the problem.
“I do not pretend to the house that this is a foolproof device, but it is a proportionate one which respects the ordeal with which these people have already suffered,” he said.
“The risk is that instead of unjust convictions, we should end up with unjust acquittals,” he added, saying: “These are exceptional circumstances, and we need to act quickly and decisively. Time is one thing that we and the convicted postmasters do not have.”
Post office operators convicted during the relevant period, between 1999 and 2015, would be asked to sign a statement declaring they did not commit a crime, Hollinrake said, and could be prosecuted for fraud if this was false.
Anyone who has had their conviction overturned will be given an upfront offer of £600,000 or allowed to proceed with a more detailed assessment process if they feel they are owed more. Those who are part of a separate group litigation will be offered £75,000 each.
The latter group, numbering 555 post office operators, received a settlement from the Post Office in 2019 following a high court case, but much of the £43m payout went to legal costs. Those in the group who believe they are entitled to more than £75,000 can also go through the assessment process.
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Hollinrake said he expected those who were convicted during a pilot scheme of the software would also be eligible for compensation.
Labour welcomed the decision, all but guaranteeing any bill will easily pass through parliament. Jonathan Reynolds, the shadow business secretary, said: “This is an unprecedented scandal, and it will require an unprecedented response.”
The Post Office, which has the power to instigate prosecutions, prosecuted more than 900 branch owner-operators who were wrongly accused of taking money from their businesses between 1999 and 2015, based on information from the faulty Horizon accounting software, installed by Fujitsu.
While the Post Office eventually conceded fault, as of December just 142 appeal case reviews had been completed. Of these, 93 convictions were overturned, with 54 upheld, withdrawn or refused permission to appeal.
The government’s decision comes despite warnings from some senior politicians and lawyers that it would set a worrying precedent for parliament to interfere with the courts in such a way.
While a public inquiry into the scandal was set up in 2020, it has become far more prominent since the broadcast of the ITV drama, which highlighted the case of one post office operator turned campaigner, Alan Bates. Asked whether Bates now deserved an honour, the prime minister’s press secretary said: “It’s hard to think of someone more deserving than him.”
