After years of injustice, a new law to expedite compensation and overturn the convictions of about 980 UK Post Office employees who were falsely accused of theft was launched by PM Sunak.
As stated by Sunak during Prime Minister’s Questions on Wednesday in the House of Commons, the government intends to present primary legislation that will reverse the convictions of so-called sub-postmasters who were prosecuted between 1999 and 2015.
“This is one of the greatest miscarriages of justice in our nation’s history,” he said, adding that those wrongfully convicted would receive an extra upfront payment of £75,000 ($95,000).
The move is indicative of the premier’s attempt to put an end to a protracted scandal that left thousands of people without money and many of them behind bars.
A few victims took their own lives.
The UK post offices were using a Fujitsu Ltd. computer system called Horizon, which had flaws that led to falsely reporting account deficits.
As a result, innocent branch managers were prosecuted in private for stealing.
Mail Services Minister Kevin Hollinrake told Times Radio on Wednesday that the fraud involved some 3,500 personnel in all, many of whom paid the deficits revealed by the accounting software with their own funds.
Only 93 of the 980 postmasters who were found guilty were able to have their convictions overturned, he added, despite the fact that the government had already paid final settlements totaling £148 million to 64% of the postmasters.
The government has stated that if a public investigation finds Fujitsu, the massive Tokyo-based technology company that provided Horizon to the Post Office, accountable, it will have to compensate the people who were implicated.
Hollinrake expressed his opinion that the taxpayer should not bear the entire cost of this.
A representative for Fujitsu said that the company has expressed regret for the victims’ pain and is cooperating with the investigation. The business still provides Horizon to the Post Office and is a significant supplier of contracts to the public sector in Britain.