Government has ‘devised options’ to deal with outstanding Horizon convictions, minister says
The government hopes to soon be able to announce measures for resolving outstanding criminal convictions in relation to the Post Office Horizon scandal, a minister has told MPs tonight.
Kevin Hollinrake, the business and trade minister, told parliament that options have been “devised” for dealing with the outstanding convictions but that conversations needed to be had with senior members of the judiciary.
He told MPs:
This is not just a matter of getting justice for those wrongly convicted. Overturning their convictions is also key to unlocking compensation. Each person who has a Horizon conviction overturned is entitled to an interim compensation payment of £163,000.
They can then choose to have their compensation individually assessed or accept an upfront offer of £600,000. That offer is already speeding along compensation for a significant number of people.
He added:
All of us on these benches and across the house are united in our desire to see justice done. We have devised some options for resolving the outstanding criminal convictions with much more pace … I am confident that we should be able to implement measures that address the concerns expressed by the advisory board.
I hope the government will be able to announce these proposals to the house very shortly.
Key events
Ministers were told they should consider life sentences in prison for those found ultimately responsible for the Horizon scandal.
Labour former minister Barry Gardiner told the Commons:
The minister said this is not just about compensation, it is about restoration, and that is true. But is it not also about misfeasance in public office? So will the minister confirm that the maximum penalty for a public servant who willingly and knowingly acts in a manner that results in harm, injury or financial loss to an innocent party is life imprisonment?
Business minister Kevin Hollinrake replied:
I have dealt with a number of different scandals over the years from the backbench as well as in my ministerial role here and I think it happens all too often at a corporate level for us to simply carry on in the way we have done in the past.
So I am very much happy to take away his points in terms of the potential penalty for the offence he describes. That is something I will discuss with officials and others.
Conservative former business minister Paul Scully, who used to oversee the government’s efforts to deal with the Horizon scandal, urged his successor to “make sure that the judiciary allow a blanket quashing of all of the convictions”.
Tory former minister Priti Patel meanwhile told Hollinrake to “review the actions and accountability of Fujitsu, and with that the culpabilities as they are still awarded contracts week after week across government”.
Pippa Crerar
Ed Davey has accused senior Post Office managers of unleashing a “conspiracy of lies” against successive ministers as he defended – and refused to apologise for – his role in the Horizon scandal.
The Liberal Democrat leader, who has been criticised for letting down victims of the miscarriage of justice as postal affairs minister between 2010 and 2012, said the government had “dragged their feet” on overturning convictions and issuing compensation payments.
He also questioned why the Tories had awarded the former Post Office chief executive Paula Vennells a CBE in the 2019 new year honours list, even though hundreds of post office operators had launched a group action in the high court two years before.
In an interview with the Guardian, the Lib Dem leader said his focus was on getting justice for post office operators who were prosecuted for taking money from their businesses as a result of faulty Post Office software, developed by the Japanese firm Fujitsu.
“It’s really important that we get to the bottom of this, that we get the truth, that the people in the Post Office who were perpetrating this conspiracy of lies, that they are held to account,” he said.
Conservative former minister Sir David Davis suggested there should be criminal prosecutions for the “real villains” of the Horizon scandal.
He told the Commons:
The government needs to do four things. It needs: to stop the Post Office unnecessarily challenging the victims’ appeals and find a more rapid method to exonerate all of the innocent victims; to instruct the Post Office to stop hiring expensive lawyers to challenge the compensations claims and therefore to accelerate the payment mechanism; to strip away the Post Office’s right to police its own cases; and to accelerate the investigatory procedures prior to criminal prosecutions of the real villains in this case – which of course are, well, we know who they are.
Does the minister believe he can achieve those four aims in months rather than years?
Business minister Kevin Hollinrake replied:
I can assure him on all four counts. Yes, we want a more rapid means of overturning convictions. Yes, we want to make sure the Post Office doesn’t challenge unfairly any attempt to overturn convictions. Yes, in terms of making sure the investigatory process happens more quickly.
Hollinrake also said the compensation schemes are not being “policed or restricted” by the Post Office.
Business minister Kevin Hollinrake has said it is “perfectly reasonable” to ask the former Post Office boss to hand back her CBE.
Downing Street earlier said prime minister Rishi Sunak would “strongly support” an honours committee if it chose to look into revoking Paula Vennells’s CBE in the wake of the Horizon scandal.
Speaking in the Commons, Hollinrake said:
As a CEO who’s overseen the Post Office during a critical time when things went so badly wrong, I think, as a former CEO myself, I would say it’s perfectly reasonable to ask somebody to voluntarily hand back an honour in that specific situation, but that’s a matter for the person concerned.
Hollinrake also said securing justice for the victims of the Horizon scandal and ensuring such a “tragedy” can never happen again is his “highest priority as a minister”.
Making a statement in the Commons, he said:
Watching last week’s ITV programme has only reinforced our zeal for seeing justice done as quickly as possible. We are already a long way down that road.
He added:
Full and final compensation has already been paid to 64% of those people affected.
He told MPs:
Getting justice for the victims of this scandal and ensuring that such a tragedy can never happen again is my highest priority as a minister and has been throughout my 15 months in office.
Business minister Kevin Hollinrake said there is a need to examine the way in which private prosecutions were used by the Post Office and said he was confident the justice secretary would give the issue “proper and thoughtful consideration”.
Hollinrake told the Commons:
There is clearly great concern about the role of the Post Office in prosecuting these cases. The Post Office quite rightly decided to stop undertaking private prosecutions in 2015.
If we are to make sure that a scandal like this can never happen again we need to look at the way in which private prosecutions like these have been undertaken.
Any company can bring private prosecutions in this way, this is not a special power of the Post Office.
I know (justice secretary Alex Chalk) wants to give this issue proper and thoughtful consideration and I am sure he will report to the House about this issue in due course.
Jonathan Reynolds, the shadow business and trade minister, has said the ITV drama Mr Bates vs The Post Office is a “powerful reminder” of how art and culture can highlight scandals, such as the Horizon scandal.
He said:
The Post Office prosecuted innocent people, causing an unimaginable amount of pain and suffering that no amount of compensation can ever alleviate. Yet to add insult to injury, the journey to justice for those subpostmasters has been mired by a great many delays and barriers.
He added:
Justice must be served to those workers and their families and that is why Labour has called for all subpostmasters to be exonerated in full.
Reynolds said Labour is in support of any measures that involve the quashing of convictions that do not involve the victims having to reopen litigation.
Government has ‘devised options’ to deal with outstanding Horizon convictions, minister says
The government hopes to soon be able to announce measures for resolving outstanding criminal convictions in relation to the Post Office Horizon scandal, a minister has told MPs tonight.
Kevin Hollinrake, the business and trade minister, told parliament that options have been “devised” for dealing with the outstanding convictions but that conversations needed to be had with senior members of the judiciary.
He told MPs:
This is not just a matter of getting justice for those wrongly convicted. Overturning their convictions is also key to unlocking compensation. Each person who has a Horizon conviction overturned is entitled to an interim compensation payment of £163,000.
They can then choose to have their compensation individually assessed or accept an upfront offer of £600,000. That offer is already speeding along compensation for a significant number of people.
He added:
All of us on these benches and across the house are united in our desire to see justice done. We have devised some options for resolving the outstanding criminal convictions with much more pace … I am confident that we should be able to implement measures that address the concerns expressed by the advisory board.
I hope the government will be able to announce these proposals to the house very shortly.
The government must bring forward minimum service levels in hospitals to protect patients during strikes, a Conservative MP said.
Speaking in the Commons, Dr Caroline Johnson, the MP for Sleaford and North Hykeham, and an NHS consultant who worked during the industrial action, said:
Make no mistake that these strikes are causing suffering to patients, both adults and children.
The derogation process has not worked, as the Secretary of State says, the BMA (British Medical Association) have not returned junior doctors to work when they have been asked to, when there has been a risk of dangerous harm to patients.
The first duty of any government is to protect its citizens so when will the secrectary of state bring forward minimum service levels to protect the patients from these strikes?
In response, health secretary Victoria Atkins said:
We have already introduced minimum service levels for ambulance services, something that was opposed by the party opposite, but we have just closed the consultation on minimum service levels in hospitals and we are of course carefully analysing the responses.
Labour has accused Rishi Sunak of being “asleep at the wheel” after the prime minister claimed a pay dispute with nurses had been resolved.
Appearing on BBC’s Sunday With Laura Kuenssberg programme, Mr Sunak said the government had reached a pay resolution with every other part of the NHS, except for junior doctors.
Speaking in the Commons, shadow health secretary Wes Streeting, said:
In his interview on the BBC yesterday, we saw why the prime minister allowed these strikes to go on for so long without intervening himself, he is using industrial action as an excuse for the state his party has left the NHS in after 14 years and he would rather blame NHS doctors and nurses than take a shred of responsibility himself.
He added:
While the prime ,inister was bragging about all the parts of the NHS that aren’t currently on strike, because that’s how low he now sets the bar, he seemed to have forgotten that nurses are still in formal dispute.
The government sat back and let the strikes go ahead whilst sending the NHS “naked into the winter”, Labour said.
Speaking in the Commons, shadow health secretary Wes Streeting said:
Before the strikes and before the pandemic the NHS has been facing winter crisis after winter crisis, as a direct result of the Conservatives’ failure, their failure to train enough staff, their failure to arm the health service with modern technology and their failure to reform.
He added:
Isn’t the truth that the Conservatives once again sent the NHS naked into the winter and patients are paying the price? Given how ill-equipped they left the NHS, and given the desperate pleas from NHS leaders for these strikes to be resolved, why on earth did the government choose to sit back and let this damaging strike action go ahead?
Not only did the health secretary (Victoria Atkins) allow talks with the junior doctors to collapse, not only did she refuse to reopen negotiations until tomorrow when the damage will have been done, at the 11th hour as junior doctors stood on the edge of this strike action she chose to push them straight into it.
Andrew Sparrow
Paul Scully, the Conservative MP who was minister for postal services under Boris Johnson, has suggested that compensation payments to Post Office workers were held up because the Treasury dragged its feet, John Stevens reports in the Mirror. He quotes Scully telling the BBC:
It was me who went to him when Rishi was Chancellor to ask him for the money. You had to go through this arcane process when you literally had to do a value for money exercise.
That’s all from me for today. Tom Ambrose is now taking over.
Labour welcomes Sunak running as continuity candidate, saying Starmer now clear choice for people who want change
Labour has welcomed Rishi Sunak’s decision to run as a continuity candidate (see 9.28am and 5.39pm), saying that he has confirmed that people won’t get change with the Conservatives.
This is from Wes Streeting, the shadow health secretary.
Stick with 14 years of Conservative failure or vote for change with Labour.
That’s the choice.
Bring it on
And this is from Pat McFadden, Labour’s national campaign coordinator.
The argument that “the country needs change and the answer is five more years of the Conservatives” has failed.
The country does need change and the only way to get it is to vote Labour and change the Government.
The argument that “the country needs change and the answer is five more years of the Conservatives” has failed.
The country does need change and the only way to get it is to vote Labour and change the Government. 🌹 https://t.co/e2gUR839lq
— Pat McFadden (@patmcfaddenmp) January 8, 2024
In an article for Bloomberg Alex Wickham says that Tory officials are admitting that the new messaging used by Rishi Sunak this morning (see 9.28am) means that the “change” stragegy has been dropped and that Sunak is now fighting the candidate as the continuity candidate.
NEW: Sunak resets election strategy from change to continuity
— Conservative source confirms there has been an “evolution” in approach, from the change candidate speech at conference to “stick with the plan” nowhttps://t.co/ZVj3fhHEUI
— Alex Wickham (@alexwickham) January 8, 2024
Wickham has posted this quote from John McTernan, political secretary to Tony Blair when he was PM, in which McTernan argues that Sunak should have stuck to the strategy set a year ago.
Worth reading this @johnmcternan analysis of Sunak’s many resets here
He says Isaac Levido had the right idea with the 5 pledges a year ago
But Sunak had a wobble in the summer and crashed around with different relaunches/strategies
Before correcting back to the Levido plan
Worth reading this @johnmcternan analysis of Sunak’s many resets here
He says Isaac Levido had the right idea with the 5 pledges a year ago
But Sunak had a wobble in the summer and crashed around with different relaunches/strategies
Before correcting back to the Levido plan pic.twitter.com/LSXLayCtiu
— Alex Wickham (@alexwickham) January 8, 2024
George Eaton from the New Statesman has posted this on Sunak’s strategic U-turn.
In his conference speech only three months ago, Rishi Sunak vowed to end a “thirty-year political status quo”.
His message now appears to be that he’ll keep it.
— George Eaton (@georgeeaton) January 8, 2024
In the Commons Victoria Atkins, the health secretary, has made a statement on the winter pressures the NHS is facing and is now taking questions from MPs. She said that 90,000 appointments were cancelled because of the strike action by junior doctors that took place before Christmas.
Wes Streeting, her Labour shadow, criticised her for “patronising” junior doctors by calling them “doctors in training” in interviews before Christmas. But Atkins told him that she was surprised that he did not realise that the BMA itself has voted to stop using the term “junior doctors” because it finds the term misleading. This was a point she made when the row about her use of the term first erupted.
The text of Humza Yousaf’s speech on what the Scottish economy might be like after independence is now on the Scottish government’s website.
Tory deputy chair Lee Anderson claims Ed Davey to blame for Post Office staff being wrongly jailed
This morning Bim Afolami, a Treasury minister, gently suggested that Ed Davey, the Lib Dem leader, had some explaining to do as regards his role in the Post Office Horizon scandal. (See 10.33am.) His colleague Lee Anderson, deputy chair of the Conservative party, is cruder and more brutal and, in an interview on GB News, he suggested that Davey was to blame for people going to jail, and even for some people taking their lives. He said:
As MPs, we often get cases come into our surgeries, into our office, and there’s always two sides to every argument and as an MP, you have to look at both sides, speak to the victims and whoever the perpetrators are, and sometimes it’s a completely different story when you get the bottom of it.
This man, this Ed Davey, has not really looked at both sides of the story. He took the side of the Post Office employers and sadly many went to prison due to him not listening …
Instead of making excuses, instead of saying he was lied to, he should properly apologise, make a public apology in parliament to these people that sadly took their lives, the families of these victims, and the people who went to prison.
Davey would not accept this. He has said that he did challenge Post Office management about claims that convictions were unsafe, but that managers did not tell him the truth.
