CONSERVATIVE
New Forest East

BEIS – HORIZON SCANDAL & PROSECUTION OF POSTMASTERS - 10 June 2020

BEIS – HORIZON SCANDAL & PROSECUTION OF POSTMASTERS - 10 June 2020

Dr Julian Lewis: This is one of the worst disasters in public life since the contaminated blood scandal. Does the Minister agree that, if it is proven that Post Office executives were aware of the software faults but allowed innocent people to rot in jail, they were guilty of criminal negligence and possibly criminal conspiracy and therefore ought to be brought to justice? Will the proposed inquiry allow that to be done?

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (Paul Scully): I am grateful to my right hon. Friend for his question. The Horizon IT system was put in place in 1999, with the first issues being raised in the early 2000s, so this was over a long period. Mr Justice Fraser considered what happened over that period and set out his findings in considerable detail and, as I said, he has referred some individuals to the Crown Prosecution Service. Post Office is now working to implement all the vital changes to which it has committed under the leadership of its new CEO, to reset the relationship with its postmasters.]