Horizon queries ‘incumbent on Lord Advocate to answer’
The SNP’S Westminster leader has said it is “incumbent” on the Lord Advocate to answer questions on the Post Office Horizon scandal.
Stephen Flynn said Dorothy Bain KC, Scotland’s top law officer, should outline why prosecutions took place after concerns became apparent in 2013.
M sb a in is expected to appear before MSPS in Holyrood this week to face scrutiny over the actions of the Crown Office.
Up to 100 people were convicted due to the faulty Post Office system Horizon in Scotland, while almost 1,000 were caught up in the scandal across the UK. North of the border, prosecutions were dealt with by the independent Crown Office, as opposed to Post Office-led prosecutions elsewhere.
A spokesperson for the Crown Office previously said it had been made aware of problems with the Horizon software in May 2013.
Addressing MSPS on Thursday, First Minister Humza Yousaf said guidance was issued to prosecutors urging them to ensure evidence was not overly reliant on Horizon in September of that year, and prosecutions were effectively halted in 2015.
He said the Crown Office, between 2013 and 2015, had been assured by the post office that Horizon had no bearing on live Scottish cases.
Speaking to BBC Scotland’s Sunday Show, Mr Flynn said: "As I understand it, since 2015 at the behest of the Crown there were no prosecutions taken forward where evidence was reliant upon the Post Office saying it was a consequence of the Horizon system.”
He added: “I think between 2013 and 2015, there was of course not that clarity provided, and I think it’s incumbent upon the Lord Advocate – and I think the suggestion at FMQS [First Minister’s Questions] earlier in the week was to this effect – that the Lord Advocate outlines why exactly that was the case.”
Mr Flynn said those affected by the scandal need justice, but stressed the Post Office was the responsibility of the UK Government.
He said: “I think all of us in positions of power, whether we were involved in the decision-making process or not, have to be sorry and apologise for what’s happened on behalf of the institutions which we are all a part of.”
It comes as Lord David Cameron insisted he could not recall “in any detail” being briefed about the Horizon scandal while he was prime minister.
The foreign secretary said on Sunday that anyone who has been involved in government in the past two decades has got to be “extremely sorry” for the miscarriage of justice.
The Tory peer, who was in No 10 between 2010 and 2016 as hundreds of sub-postmasters were being pursued, faced questions about what action he took to stop it.
He told Sky’s Sunday Morning With Trevor Phillips: “I don’t recall in any detail being briefed or being aware of the scale of this issue.
“We’ve got to get to the bottom of it, and that’s what inquiries do, they can look at what were ministers told, what information was put in front of them, what did they decide – because it’s hard to remember every letter and piece of paper put in front of you.”
Sir Ed Davey, the now Liberal Democrat leader who served as Lord Cameron’s postal affairs minister in the coalition government, has faced criticism for refusing to apologise.
Lord Cameron said: “This is an appalling miscarriage of justice and anyone who’s been involved in government in any way over the last 20 years has got to be extremely sorry, as I am, about what has happened.”
Kevin Hollinrake, the Post Office minister, has argued figures at the Post Office who were found to be responsible for the scandal should be jailed. He argued it would be the “ultimate deterrent”.
Lord Cameron would not go so far, but said: “We’ve got to get to the bottom of who is responsible for what and who should be accountable “.
He added: “And if it involves lawbreaking we have an independent judicial system in this
My mum lost everything – her job, her children, her health and eventually her life because of the Post Office Gemma Mcgowan
country and if people have broken the law they should face the consequences.”
Three children of a Scottish postmistress have laid bare the human cost, saying the scandal was to blame for killing their mother Fiona Mcgowan, 47.
Daughter Gemma Mcgowan and brothers William and Daryl Wallace told the Sunday Mail their mother, from Edinburgh, had died with nothing, convinced she was going to prison after being charged with false accounting.
Fiona and her partner Phil Cowan were wrongly accused of stealing £30,000 from a post office in Edinburgh’s Parsons Green.
Gemma, 37, said: “My mum lost everything – her job, her children, her health and eventually her life because of the Post Office.
“Me and my brothers’ lives were ruined and mum carried the weight of this with her until she died. It was a dark cloud hanging over her.
"She died believing she was going to end up in jail.
“We now want justice for her because she can’t fight for it herself.”
Fiona died in her sleep from an accidental overdose of antidepressants and alcohol in 2009.
In Scotland, up to 100 prosecutions of sub-postmasters and sub-postmistresses were carried out by the Crown Office.