Post Office and Horizon update

[Fandangoes]

Just wondering - does anyone know why the government have decided not to include Scotland in the latest decision to exonerate post office masters and award payouts? The newsreader just seems to make a throw away comment that it only covered England and Wales and somebody was disappointed Scotland wasn’t included.

[ZenNudist]

The government are waiting for them all to die if old age to minimise pay outs. Furore has died down. We should all remain angry on their behalf.

[Sarahconnor1]

Because they were convicted in Scottish courts. The power to reverse convictions imposed by the Scottish courts is devolved to the Scottish Parliament

[zzpleb]

Different legal system in Scotland.

[MandyMotherOfBrian]

Different legal systems. The PO didn’t prosecute in Scotland - the Scottish legal system did COPFS and it falls under the remit of the Scottish government. And afaik Humza Yousaf has said he will consider a Legislative Consent Motion that will allow the Westminster governments ruling to also apply north of the border.

[zzpleb]

Interesting point @MandyMotherOfBrian - I didn't know that COPFS conducted the prosecutions. Were they more robust than the POL prosecutions in England and Wales?

The argument for stopping POL's ability to prosecute is that the threshold for incriminating evidence would have been higher if the prosecution had been conducted by the CPS. But how does that stack up with the COPFS prosecutions? Is it clear cut that all POL prosecutions in Scotland are unsafe?

[MandyMotherOfBrian]

Were they more robust than the POL prosecutions in England and Wales?

Good question, I don’t know the answer. However, allegedly, the Crown Office knew about potential problems with the Horizon IT system as far back as May 2013, sooo…..

[Tallerandtall]

@Fandangoes

all the directors of the post office and ceos during this scandal should be in jail.

the shit show of a government should call an election

the UK has gone into reverse since Brexit and this is another thing on top

intetnationally we are a laughing stock

[Sarahconnor1]

No major party is clean on this.

Horizon was introduced while Labour were in Government. They were warned in 1998 that Horizon was unreliable but chose to press ahead in part because they didn't want to upset Fujistu

The mess continued and escalated under the coalition, Ed Davey as Post Office minister refused to meet with sub post masters.

And it continued on to the current situation under the Tory government