Ministers have drawn up urgent plans to clear the names of hundreds of post office operators who were wrongly convicted of theft and fraud in the Horizon IT scandal as the government scrambled to get on the front foot over the major miscarriage of justice.
The justice secretary, Alex Chalk, will hold talks with the senior judiciary to confirm how the convictions can be overturned as soon as possible, so victims can have speedier access to millions of pounds of compensation.
Rishi Sunak said the government would do “everything we can to make this right for all those affected” and was looking at ways of “speeding up” the compensation process. “People should know we are on it and want to make it right,” he added.
Options are understood to include blocking the Post Office from challenging appeals by hundreds of victims of the scandal, allowing post office operators to appeal en masse and passing legislation that would automatically quash convictions.
Downing Street said the prime minister “shares the public’s feeling of outrage” on the issue and would “strongly support” the honours forfeiture committee if it decided to review the CBE of former Post Office boss Paula Vennells.
The role of the Post Office in private prosecutions is also under review. “If we are to make sure that a scandal like this can never happen again, we need to look at the way in which private prosecutions like these have been undertaken,” Kevin Hollinrake, a business minister, told MPs.
However, the government remains under pressure to exonerate the post office operators in full after an ITV drama, Mr Bates vs the Post Office, returned the widespread miscarriage of justice, which took place between 1999 and 2015, to the spotlight.
The shadow business secretary, Jonathan Reynolds, said: “It is still an urgent priority to get compensation to all those affected and it is unconscionable that convictions still remain where it is clear that no wrongdoing has been committed.”
Liberal Democrat leader Ed Davey, a former post office minister between 2010 and 2012, accused ministers of “dragging their feet” on overturning convictions and issuing compensation payouts as he defended his role in the scandal.
In an interview with the Guardian, Davey questioned why the Tories had recognised Vennells in the 2019 new year honours list, even though hundreds of post office operators had launched a group action in the high court two years before.
A petition demanding that the honours forfeiture committee remove the honour from Vennells, who was in charge of the Post Office while it routinely denied there were problems with its IT system, over the scandal has already attracted more than 1 million signatures.
Vennells, who was also appointed as a nonexecutive board member to the Cabinet Office in February 2019, has said she is “truly sorry” for the “suffering” caused to those wrongly convicted of offences.
Only 93 of up to 900 post office operators wrongfully prosecuted have seen their convictions quashed, while more than 50 appeals have failed or been withdrawn.
Two former justice secretaries, Tory MP Robert Buckland and Labour peer Charlie Falconer, claimed that legislation to exonerate the remaining 750 post office operators with convictions “could be done tomorrow”.
Buckland wrote in a letter to the Times: “We should recognise these exceptional circumstances by asking parliament to pass legislation … such legislation would help to right a clear wrong. Too many sub-postmasters have already died without seeing justice being done, so there is no more time to be lost.”
Lord Falconer, the justice secretary under Tony Blair, added: “The government could introduce that [legislation] tomorrow and there would be no resistance in parliament.
“It’s an absolutely shocking scandal that’s been there for years and years, and now it’s at the top of the political agenda. Everyone agrees it will take years to get rid of those other convictions unless there is a change in procedure.”
During a Commons statement on the scandal, Hollinrake said he was concerned at the “slow pace” at which criminal convictions were being overturned by the courts.
“We have devised some options for resolving the outstanding criminal convictions much more quickly,” he said. “The [justice secretary] will, quite rightly, need to speak to senior figures in the judiciary about those options before we put them forward.”
He added: “We want a more rapid means of overturning convictions. Yes, we want to make sure the Post Office doesn’t challenge unfairly any attempt to overturn convictions. Yes, in terms of making sure the investigatory process happens more quickly.”
Hollinrake confirmed the government was reviewing the right of any company to make private prosecutions in the wake of the scandal.
“There is clearly great concern about the role of the Post Office in prosecuting these cases. The Post Office quite rightly decided to stop undertaking private prosecutions some years ago,” he said.
The Metropolitan police are looking into potential offences in relation to the company’s investigations and prosecutions. Hundreds were jailed or left bankrupt and at least four people took their own lives. Most victims have not received compensation.
Downing Street hinted that Fujitsu, which provided the faulty accounting software, could be expected to contribute to the compensation bill. “It should not be [taxpayer money] alone which picks up the tab for Horizon compensation,” a spokesperson said.
Hollinrake told MPs that dozens more post office operators who were wrongly convicted after taking part in a pilot scheme of the faulty Horizon system, revealed by the Guardian, would qualify for compensation.
“We want to make sure every single victim is properly covered by the various schemes, I’ve asked anybody who has evidence of any kind … to furnish me with details and I’ll make sure we pick up anybody who’s left outside the schemes,” he said.
He confirmed that a retired high court judge, Sir Gary Hickinbottom, would chair an independent panel with oversight of compensation payments to postmasters.
