Rishi Sunak is actively considering an emergency bill to quash all 800 Horizon IT scandal convictions at once, the justice secretary has revealed.
Mr Sunak’s ministers are in crunch talks to clear the names of hundreds of Post Office subpostmasters wrongfully convicted in the scandal.
Justice secretary Alex Chalk told the Commons that the government was giving “active consideration” to using legislation to overturn the convictions.
Former cabinet minister Nadhim Zahawi urged him to bring forward a “simple bill to quash all 800” convictions immediately.
Mr Chalk said Mr Zahawi’s suggestion was “receiving active consideration”, before adding: “I expect to be able to make further announcements shortly,” he added.
Ministers intend to move “very quickly” to resolve the issue, he said, after the miscarriage of justice was brought into the spotlight again by the ITV drama.
It could see hundreds of former branch managers exonerated in one go – something both Tory MPs and Labour are pushing the government to do.
Ex-Tory justice secretary Robert Buckland has called for “exceptional” legislation to deal with all the cases together – saying MPs “can and should act” now to pass law because “we can’t wait anymore”.
MPs have called for Fujitsu – the firm behind the faulty Horizon accounting software that made it look as if money was missing from shops – to pay for compensating wronged Post Office staff
No 10 said on Tuesday that Fujitsu will be “held accountable”, legally or financially, if the ongoing public inquiry finds it blundered in the Horizon scandal.
However, Dominic Grieve, former Tory attorney general, told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme that legislation was “not a particularly commendable approach” – warning that it may not “get rid of convictions”.
Prof Graham Zellick KC, former chair of the Criminal Cases Review Commission, said the body “could do this job very quickly” rather than have MPs overrule the judicial system.
The senior Tory also said Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey has “big questions” to answer on his role in the Horizon scandal as postal affairs minister between 2010 and 2012.
Sir Ed lashed out at “the people in the Post Office who were perpetrating this conspiracy of lies” in an interview with The Guardian.
Reports suggest that 50 new potential victims have approached lawyers since ITV’s Mr Bates Vs The Post Office was broadcast. The Post Office is wholly owned by the government.
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