Question reference: S6W-26636
- Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness and Nairn, Scottish National Party
- Date lodged: 23 April 2024
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Current status: Answered by Angela Constance on 7 May 2024
Question
To ask the Scottish Government, in light of reports that the consultants, Deloitte, provided evidence to the Post Office in 2017 suggesting that errors in the Horizon IT system or remote tampering could have caused the financial losses that were being investigated, what its position is on whether any convictions in Scotland that involved evidence related to the Horizon IT system (a) can be considered safe and (b) should be quashed.
Answer
The Scottish Government believes that the Post Office Horizon scandal is a unique situation requiring urgent action to ensure those wrongly convicted can finally access justice. Whilst the determination of innocence or guilt in criminal cases is usually rightly a matter for the judiciary, the situation arising is unprecedented in its scale and nature.
The Scottish Government can confirm that a Bill is currently going through the usual parliamentary process and will be introduced shortly.
The Scottish Bill will need to be passed after the UK Bill has been passed, to take account of any amendments made during passage at Westminster. This is to ensure full compatibility with UK legislation and the UK compensation scheme, in which the Scottish parliament has no locus, as we do not want to see anything that could lead to sub-postmasters not being treated on and equal and fair basis.