Holyrood may be recalled to pass Post Office bill
The Scottish parliament may need to be recalled in the summer recess to finalise legislation to exonerate subpostmasters convicted of crimes in relation to the Horizon IT system.
Justice Secretary Angela Constance said the Scottish
Bill, which is being treated as an emergency at Holyrood, needs to be in place as soon as possible after the UK legislation is passed.
MSPS will debate Stage One of the Post Office (Horizon System) Offences (Scotland) Bill on Tuesday before moving to Stage Two tomorrow.
Writing to Holyrood’s Justice Committee, ms con stance said she wanted to ensure parity of treatment for subpostmasters north of the border – ensuring they can access theuk govern men t’ s redress scheme.
Ms Constance said the Scottish Parliament should only conclude the final part of its Stage Three debate after any final changes to the UK legislation became clear.
In her letter, Ms Constance said: “The UK legislation is proceeding through Westminster, but we do not yet have the final timetable for that and amendments can still be made to the Bill in the House of Commons and Lords.” And she added: “I very much hope the passage of the UK Bill can be before the Scottish Parliament breaks for recess at the end of June.
“However, as the Minister for Parliamentary Business made clear last week, the possibility of me asking for the parliament to be recalled for Stage Three cannot be ruled out.”
Meanwhile, in an email which surfaced the day before her evidence to the Horizon IT inquiry, former Post Office chief executive Paula Vennells described potential wrongful convictions of subpostmasters as “very disturbing” – more than a year before the company halted prosecutions.
ITV News reported that the October 2013 email, as well as a recording of a phone conversation involving Ms Vennells, confirmed she was sent case files of eight subpostmasters.
In her exchange with Ron Warmington, a forensic accountant with firm Second Sight who were drafted in to review independently the horizon system, Ms Vennells said: “I have just read through the attachments.
“Apart from finding them very disturbing (I defy anyone not to), I am now even better informed.
“As is aid… i take this very seriously …”
Ms Vennells, who was chief executive between 2012 and 2019, told MPS in February 2015, just over a year after sending the email, that there was nothing wrong with the Horizon system and that she had seen no evidence of miscarriages of justice.
ITV News said former member of the business and trade select committee, Nadhim Zahawi, believed the email
will “be seen as the smoking gun that is the cover-up that has taken place at the Post Office”.
The Conservative MP told the broadcaster: “I hope that Ms Vennells will finally admit the truth so that the public can get to the bottom of this and those who have suffered get the justice they need.”
Ms Vennells, 65, is set to be questioned under oath today about her role in the Horizon scandal which unfolded under her watch.