UK Post Office scandal: PM Sunak announces new emergency law to overturn convictions

United Kingdom Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, on Wednesday (Jan 10) said that his government would introduce an emergency law to grant an unprecedented blanket acquittal for hundreds of wrongly convicted employees of the state-owned Post Office inthe Horizon IT scandal.

‘One of the greatest miscarriages of justice’

Between 1999 and 2015, the Post Office prosecuted hundreds of sub-postmasters and sub-postmistresses for alleged theft, fraud and false accounting based on the information from a recently installed IT system.

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The decades-long scandal involves thousands of branch owner-operators and hundreds of wrongful convictions. According to the BBC, there are more than 900 convictions linked to the scandal over 16 years.

In a statement, Sunak, describing the scandal as “one of the greatest miscarriages of justice in our nation’s history” said that his government will introduce new legislation to make sure that the victims of the scandal are “swiftly exonerated and compensated”.

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He added, “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.”

British media reports citing government officials said that the bill would be introduced “within weeks” as they have sought to grant the acquittals this year.

How will it help the victims of the scandal?

Speaking in the House of Commons after the UK PM, Kevin Hollinrake, member of Parliament and Post Office minister said hundreds fell victim to a “brutal and arbitrary exercise of power” by the state-owned entity.

Hollinrake told the Commons that amid the ongoing public inquiry about the scandal, they have found evidence that suggests that the Post Office acted with “incompetence and malevolence”.

He also noted that the bill that the government has sought to introduce could lead to some people fraudulently claiming compensation, but it will be a price worth paying.

“The risk is that instead of unjust convictions, we should end up with unjust acquittals,” said the Post Office minister. He added, “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.”

The opposition Labour Party has welcomed the decision indicating that the bill introduced would swiftly pass through the parliament.

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Hollinrake said those applying for compensation after they have been acquitted would have to sign a statement saying they did not commit the crimes of which they were accused.

He also acknowledged that it is not a “foolproof device” but called it “proportionate” and respectful of those who would have suffered the ordeal.

The bill will be introduced in response to the alarmingly slow pace at which the wrongly convicted Post Office staff is being exonerated and involve the parliament overturning the verdicts of multiple courts.

The bill would be introduced despite many raising concerns about the parliament interfering with the courts’ decision and setting a concerning precedent.

While the full details of the proposed law are yet to be known, Downing Street said it would amount to a blanket overturning of convictions tied to the scandal.

(With inputs from agencies)