Former Post Office workers in Scotland who were wrongly convicted based on faulty computer evidence have had their convictions overturned. Emergency legislation has been passed in Scottish Parliament to exonerate these individuals, with each receiving an initial compensation of £600,000. This follows similar legislation in Westminster covering England, Wales, and Northern Ireland.
Scotland’s justice secretary, Angela Constance, acknowledged that while no amount of compensation can truly make up for the suffering these individuals endured, steps are being taken to restore their good names and provide financial redress. The Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission has reviewed a number of cases, resulting in the overturning of the first wrongful conviction in September.
Between 2000 and 2015, 736 subpostmasters across the UK were wrongly convicted based on evidence from the flawed Horizon system. A group led by former subpostmaster Alan Bates took legal action to prove the system’s errors, ultimately leading to convictions being overturned. The Post Office scandal, first uncovered by Computer Weekly in 2009, is considered one of the biggest miscarriages of justice in British history.