Rishi Sunak is actively considering an emergency bill to quash all 800 Horizon scandal convictions at once, the justice secretary has revealed.
Mr Sunak’s ministers are in crunch talks on the best way to clear the names of hundreds of Post Office subpostmasters who were wrongfully convicted.
Justice secretary Alex Chalk told MPs that the government was giving “active consideration” to legislation to overturn the convictions.
It comes as former Post Office boss Paula Vennells announced that she would hand back her CBE following the fallout of the scandal.
She said she was “truly sorry for the devastation caused” to staff and their families, and would be returning the top honour immediately having listened to calls from campaigners.
In the Commons, former Tory cabinet minister Nadhim Zahawi urged Mr Sunak’s government to bring forward a “simple bill to quash all 800” convictions immediately.
Mr Chalk said Mr Zahawi’s suggestion was “receiving active consideration”, before adding: “I expect to be able to make further announcements shortly,” he added.
Ministers intend to move “very quickly” to resolve the issue, the justice secretary said, after the miscarriage of justice was thrust into the spotlight by the recent ITV drama.
Justice secretary Alex Chalk is in talks with members of the judiciary about the Horizon scandal— (PA Wire)
It could see hundreds of former branch managers exonerated in one go – something both Tory MPs and Labour are pushing the government to do.
Ex-Tory justice secretary Robert Buckland has called for “exceptional” legislation to deal with all the cases together – saying MPs “can and should act” now to pass law because “we can’t wait anymore”.
Mr Chalk told Mr Buckland that he agreed that the scandal was “truly exceptional” – calling it “the most serious miscarriage of justice since the Guildford Four and the Birmingham Six”.
Hinting that the government could back the legislation that Mr Buckland and others are calling for, the justice secretary said “it will need an appropriate resolution”. However, Mr Chalk also said the government would only introduce legislation if it had “exhausted all alternatives before taking radical action”.
MPs have called for Fujitsu – the firm behind the faulty Horizon accounting software that made it look as if money was missing from shops – to pay for compensating wronged Post Office staff.
No 10 said on Tuesday that Fujitsu will be “held accountable”, legally or financially, if the ongoing public inquiry finds it blundered in the Horizon scandal.
But the PM’s spokesman did not say the government would stop awarding contracts to the company if it was found to be at fault – saying only that companies’ conduct was “in general” would be considered as part of the procurement process.
The scale of the government’s involvement with Fujitsu is significant. Since 2012, the public sector as a whole has awarded the company almost 200 contracts worth a combined total of £6.8 billion, according to analysts Tussell.
A petition calling for the former Post Office boss Paula Vennells to lose her CBE received more than 1 million signatures— (Teri Pengilley for The Independent)
Mr Sunak’s ministers are looking at changing the rules around private prosecutions by the Post Office and other companies, work and pensions secretary Mel Stride said earlier.
It comes amid calls including from Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer to strip prosecution powers from the Post Office.
Meanwhile, Dominic Grieve, former Tory attorney general, told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme that emergency legislation was “not a particularly commendable approach” – warning that it may not “get rid of convictions”.
Prof Graham Zellick KC, ex-chair of the Criminal Cases Review Commission, said his former body “could do this job very quickly” rather than have MPs overrule the judicial system.
It comes as Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey, under pressure over his role in the Horizon scandal as postal affairs minister between 2010 and 2012, hit back at his critics.
Sir Ed lashed out at “the people in the Post Office who were perpetrating this conspiracy of lies” in an interview with The Guardian.
The Lib Dem leader also fired back at the Tories, questioning why the government had sanctioned the CBE award for Ms Vennells. “They knew all about this,” he said. “I’d like to know who signed it off. It was a bizarre decision.”
Reports suggest that 50 new potential victims have approached lawyers since ITV’s Mr Bates Vs The Post Office was broadcast. The Post Office is wholly owned by the government.
