Lord Advocate must face Parliament over Crown failings on Post Office scandal

Conservative leader Douglas Ross, Lord Advocate Dorothy Bain and Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar, who said “people lost their livelihoods and some even lost their lives”.

By Bill Heaney

The Scottish Conservatives have called for the Lord Advocate to face parliamentary scrutiny over Crown Office failings in the Horizon Post Office scandal.

At First Minister’s Questions in the Scottish Parliament today, Douglas Ross said the process of clearing innocent people’s names must be “accelerated” in Scotland.

Dr Andrew Tickell, senior law lecturer at Glasgow Caledonian University, said this week: “The revelation that the Crown Office knew of problems is huge.”

He added that Scotland was “just at the beginning” of addressing the miscarriage of justice, while England and Wales were “much, much further down the road”.

Douglas Ross said the “actions of the Crown Office in Scotland should trouble us greatly”.

He highlighted that the Crown Office decided not to proceed with a case in January 2013 because of “issues with Horizon”, according to notes from the Procurator Fiscal at the time.

He raised comments from Stuart Munro, convener of the Law Society of Scotland’s criminal law committee, who said this week that the Procurator Fiscal should have gone public.

He said: “The Procurator Fiscal has a legal duty to disclose relevant information to those accused of crimes, and that duty continues even after a trial is concluded.

“As soon as the Fiscal became aware of concerns about the reliability of Horizon, that should have been disclosed.”

Douglas Ross told MSPs: “The Horizon Post Office scandal is a horrendous miscarriage of justice that ruined hundreds of lives.

“Politicians of all parties will rightly reflect on what they should have done sooner.

“The UK Government has now acted to overturn the wrongful convictions of innocent victims.

“The SNP Government must work constructively with the UK Government to quickly pass legislation that clears innocent people’s names.

“The process in Scotland must be accelerated.

“There are serious questions for the Crown Office to answer. It seems they were aware of concerns about the Horizon system in 2013, more than 10 years ago.

“Good people were criminalised because of an IT failure that they had nothing to do with. It is right that no stone is left unturned in seeking answers.

“The Crown Office in Scotland must be transparent.

“The Lord Advocate should urgently come to the Scottish Parliament to be questioned about this scandal.”

Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar said: “The lives of potentially hundreds of Scottish sub postmasters and their families were ruined by the Post Office and Fujitsu.

“People lost their livelihoods and some even lost their lives.

“They have described being ostracised in their communities, their families shunned and their children targeted. It is a national disgrace.

“I welcome that these convictions are being overturned, but there is more to this scandal.

“Unlike in England and Wales, where the Post Office itself brought these prosecutions, in Scotland they were carried out by the Crown Office and the Procurator Fiscal.

“We know Ministers and the Crown were made aware of concerns around unsafe prosecutions in 2013.

“Disturbing accounts from the public inquiry have revealed Post Office employees going door to door in Scotland to threaten and extort money from sub-Postmasters.

“In behaviour reminiscent of the mob, these stories show that the Post Office behaved like a private police force and showed little regard for the law in Scotland.

“Sub-postmasters were pressured into accepting accusations of false accounting and forced to hand over thousands of pounds that day or face imprisonment.

“If any other organisation had behaved like this in Scotland we would expect to see criminal investigations into their conduct.

“Too often in this country when there is an injustice, the first instinct of institutions and of Government is to protect themselves.

“Whether it’s the sub-postmasters taking on the Post Office, the Hillsborough scandal, the C-diff scandal at the Vale of Leven or victims of infections at the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital.

“It shouldn’t take victims disclosing the most harrowing moments of their lives to shame both of Scotland’s Governments into action.

“Government is meant to be on the peoples’ side, but tragically when victims come looking for justice all they get are more barriers put in their way – and the silence, denial and cover up compounds the injustice and amplifies their pain.

“Ministers – be they UK or Scottish – always say we must learn the lessons and it can’t be allowed to happen again. But it does.

“The priority for Government should be truth and justice for victims, rather than protecting institutions and individual reputations.”

Earlier, the Cabinet Secretary for Justice and Home Affairs, Angela Constance, left, said: “The Horizon scandal is rightly causing great concern, and it is important to recognise the tireless work of campaigners who have led efforts for justice. Anyone who is wrongly convicted as a result of the Horizon scandal should have their conviction reversed and be entitled to compensation.

“The Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission has already referred seven cases back to the appeal court for a fresh appeal, and in two of those cases, so far, the convictions have been overturned on appeal.