Question reference: S6W-01008
- Asked by: Willie Rennie, MSP for North East Fife, Scottish Liberal Democrats
- Date lodged: 1 July 2021
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Current status: Answered by Dorothy Bain on 16 July 2021
Question
To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the decision of the Court of Appeal of England and Wales on 23 April 2021 to overturn the convictions of sub-postmasters and postmistresses convicted of theft, fraud and false accounting on the basis of flawed evidence from the Post Office’s Horizon system, what steps are being taken by the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service to (a) identify Scottish sub-postmasters and postmistresses and their staff who were potentially wrongly prosecuted for fraud or embezzlement in Scotland on the basis of similarly flawed information supplied by the Post Office and (b) determine whether, in respect of prosecutions in Scotland, the Post Office was misleading during the court processes about the flaws of the Horizon system described by the Court of Appeal, or failed to disclose those flaws.
Answer
On 23 April 2021 the Court of Appeal (Criminal Division) for England and Wales issued a judgement in Josephine Hamilton & Others v Post Office Limited [2021] EWCA Crim 577 relating to cases referred to it by the Criminal Cases Review Commission for England, Wales and Northern Ireland.
The case involved a total of 42 applicants who were formerly sub-postmasters or sub-postmistresses for the Post Office Limited who had been convicted of offences including theft, fraud and false accounting.
The Court of Appeal quashed the convictions of 39 of the applicants on the basis that evidence from the Horizon computer system, operated by the Post Office Limited, could not be relied upon.
Post Office Limited have identified persons known to have been convicted in Scotland on the basis of evidence that may relate to the Horizon computer system. This information has been provided to the Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission (SCCRC). A number of cases are under review by the SCCRC. The Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service is assisting the SCCRC with its review. Any decision to refer the cases to the High Court is a matter for the SCCRC.