Work ongoing on legislation to exonerate Horizon scandal victims

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https://www.pressandjournal.co.uk/polit ... ms-yousaf/

Work on Scottish legislation to exonerate those wrongly convicted in the Post Office Horizon scandal is ongoing, Humza Yousaf has said.

However the First Minister again urged the UK Government to include Scotland in its law on the issue, saying this would be the simplest way forward.

Rishi Sunak’s Government hopes to pass its law before MPs’ summer holiday and any Scottish legislation would come afterwards.

Around 100 Post Office subpostmasters in Scotland were among those convicted after being wrongly accused of embezzling money in the Horizon scandal.

When the issue was raised at First Minister’s Questions on Thursday by Labour’s Pauline McNeill, Mr Yousaf said: “We continue to press the UK Government to extend their Bill to cover subpostmasters and mistresses here in Scotland.

“The Cabinet Secretary for Justice has written to them today with suggested amendments to achieve this.”

If this does not happen, he said the Scottish Government will introduce its own legislation following the Westminster Bill.

Ms McNeill said the onus should not be on subpostmasters to appeal against their convictions, something Mr Yousaf agreed with.

Justice Secretary Angela Constance has written to the UK Government on the issue (Andrew Milligan/PA)
There are difficulties in identifying exactly which cases in Scotland are linked to Horizon, he said.

Unlike south of the border, the Post Office is not able to bring its own prosecutions under Scots Law.

He said: “We want no delay whatsoever, we’ll continue to work with the UK Government to do what is the simplest thing, which is to ensure the UK legislation applies UK-wide.”

Responding to a question from Fergus Ewing, Mr Yousaf added: “We are working on Scottish-specific legislation.

“Though I go back to the central point, we cannot allow a situation where subpostmasters and postmistresses in Scotland are treated a different way in Scotland than they are in England in relation to the access to compensation.”

Justice Secretary Angela Constance said she had sent a letter to UK enterprise minister Kevin Hollinrake setting out 15 “relatively simple” amendments which could extend the UK Bill to Scotland.

A UK Government spokeswoman said: “In Scotland, prosecutions were undertaken by the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service.

“Is it therefore right that overturning convictions in Scotland is determined, delivered and scrutinised by the Scottish Government and the Scottish Parliament.

“The Scottish Government has already indicated that they are bringing forward legislation and we are working closely with them as we progress legislation to ensure equitable outcomes for victims across the UK.”