Carmichael welcomes progress of Horizon scandal exoneration bill

Orkney and Shetland MP, Alistair Carmichael, has welcomed the passage of the Post Office (Horizon System) Offences Bill in Parliament, which will exonerate postmasters wrongly convicted during the Horizon scandal. Speaking in Parliament yesterday [Monday] evening, Mr Carmichael said that the rapid passage of the legislation showed what was possible “when the House comes together”, and called on the Scottish Government to move quickly to replicate the plans in Scots law. 

Mr Carmichael also noted his upcoming parliamentary debate on the accountability of the Financial Conduct Authority, which he said raised similar issues around fair treatment by government bodies.

Speaking in the House, Mr Carmichael said:

“I am pleased to give this Bill my support and that of my party on Third Reading. It shows what is possible when the House comes together and works collegiately, as we have done. It must surely remain a concern to us all that it is necessary in the first place.

“I would say only that I hope that the Scottish Government can bring to the Scottish Parliament the legislation that has been prepared, because the important thing here is the outcome for the sub-postmasters themselves. For the Post Office as an institution, this is an important step in restoring its standing in the communities that we all represent.

“There is a temptation to think that when the Bill passes and its provisions are implemented, somehow or other that is it—job done. I caution the House against that. We are here tonight because of a head of steam that was built up because of the nature of the Post Office as an institution, the standing of sub-postmasters in our communities, the sheer number of cases and the remarkable way in which the ITV programme caught the mood of the nation.

“What happened to sub-postmasters is different from what happens to people all the time only in one respect: the sheer scale of it. I will be back in Westminster Hall on Wednesday morning to deal with a case about the accountability of the Financial Conduct Authority, where it acted in respect of claims made by constituents of mine who had been the victims of a Ponzi scheme only because it was eventually forced into doing so by people who, as with the Post Office, were brave enough to take their case to court. Ultimately, they lost, but in the process of taking their case to court, they put the FCA in a position where there was no alternative but to pay out to all the victims through the financial services compensation scheme.

“The brave 95 people who took the legal action in the first place are left £2 million out of pocket. That might be the law, but you will never persuade me that it is justice.”