The Scottish Government has announced plans for new legislation that will exonerate sub-postmasters wrongfully convicted as a result of the faulty Horizon IT system.
Those who have their convictions quashed under the proposed Postal Offenses (Horizon System) (Scotland) Bill will then be able to access the UK government’s financial redress scheme.
The bill will be introduced to the Scottish Parliament on Tuesday and will be fast-tracked to allow justice and redress to be delivered to victims as “swiftly as possible”, in line with the UK bill.
This comes after Westminster legislation was not extended to cover sub-postmasters in Scotland.
Around 100 subpostmasters in Scotland were among those convicted after they were wrongly accused of embezzling money.
The proceedings were conducted by the Crown Office in Scotlandnot the Post Office.
Justice Secretary Angela Constance said: “Innocent sub-postmasters have had their lives ruined by being wrongly convicted of crimes of dishonesty based on evidence from the faulty Post Office Horizon system.
“The quickest and easiest way to overturn these miscarriages of justice would have been for the UK government to extend its postal offenses law (Horizon system) to cover sub-postmasters in Scotland.
“However, our repeated requests for this were refused. Our Bill therefore reflects that of UK legislation to ensure parity of affected sub-postmasters in Scotland with those in other parts of the UK and to ensure access to the UK government compensation scheme.
“The scale of the scandal and the length of time victims have waited for justice mean we are taking the unprecedented step of introducing legislation to right this terrible wrong and calling on parliament to prosecute it as an emergency bill.”
Read more about the Correios scandal:
Correios lawyer accused of telling a ‘big lie’ to the Horizon inquiry
More than £1m claimed as ‘profit’ may have come from victims
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Once the bill has been introduced, the first phase of debate and voting on the general principles is expected to take place at Holyrood on May 21st. The second phase changes will then be considered on May 22.
Constance added: “The Scottish Government will not do anything that puts victims’ equality and parity at risk, 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 MSPs can take into account any changes made to the UK Bill.”
The legislation will exonerate convicted subpostmasters when the following criteria are met:
• The conviction was for embezzlement, fraud, theft, elocution or an accessory crime committed between September 23, 1996 and December 31, 2018
• The person carried on a business at the Post Office or worked at the Post Office with the purpose of carrying on a business at the Post Office
• The conviction was related to the exercise or work for commercial purposes of Correios
• The Horizon system was being used for the purposes of Post Office activity at the relevant post office
• Conviction was not considered by the High Court in connection with an appeal
This story originally appeared on News.sky.com read the full story
