‘Not too late’ to add Northern Ireland to law overturning UK Post Office convictions

David Young, PA

The door is not shut on adding Northern Ireland to a UK government law aimed at quashing the wrongful convictions of subpostmasters caught up in the Horizon IT scandal, Stormont’s Justice Minister has insisted.

Naomi Long said she was “very disappointed” the UK government had not widened its draft Bill to include Northern Ireland.

Ms Long claimed her Stormont colleagues – First Minister Michelle O’Neill and deputy First Minister Emma Little-Pengelly – had been given an indication on Tuesday from UK levelling up secretary Michael Gove and Northern Ireland Office minister Steve Baker that the government was open to showing flexibility around including the region in the proposed law.

She said that made its exclusion from the Bill introduced in the UK's House of Commons on Wednesday particularly frustrating.

However, she said it was not too late to add Northern Ireland by amending the legislation as it proceeds through its parliamentary stages.

The Post Office (Horizon System) Offences Bill will exonerate those convicted in England and Wales on the basis of the faulty Horizon accounting software.

Northern Ireland and Scotland are excluded from the Bill, with the UK government having pledged to work with those devolved administrations to find ways for them to expunge wrongful convictions.

More than 700 subpostmasters in the UK were prosecuted by the Post Office and handed criminal convictions between 1999 and 2015 as Fujitsu’s faulty Horizon IT system made it appear as though money was missing at their branches.

Ms Long said there were around 25 affected subpostmasters in Northern Ireland.

“Obviously we’re very disappointed that (Post Office) minister Kevin Hollinrake has decided to go ahead today with the Post Office convictions expunction legislation, without including Northern Ireland and indeed Scotland,” she told reporters at Stormont.

“We became aware that he was going to do so yesterday when they shared a draft of the legislation with us.

“It was particularly disappointing because earlier in the day the First and deputy First Minister had sought reassurances from Steve Baker as Minister of State and from Michael Gove as the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, and they seemed open and flexible about the inclusion of Northern Ireland in that legislation. So it is particularly frustrating that they’ve decided to proceed without it.

“We have written again to the minister and asked him to consider adding Northern Ireland to the legislation as it goes through the House of Commons, because there will be an opportunity to amend the legislation.

“We remain of the view that this is not just the simplest way and the quickest way to deal with it but the right way to deal with it in terms of ensuring that there is parity of treatment for people in Northern Ireland with those right across the UK who were affected by the Post Office scandal. It now remains to be seen whether ministers will step up and take that opportunity.”

She added: “I don’t think the door is completely shut when it comes to whether Northern Ireland may be included as it goes through its passage of the House because then it could be added at amendment stage.”

Ms Long said introducing specific legislation at Stormont would be “slow and cumbersome”. She said it would also be using a “sledgehammer to crack a nut” given the relatively small number of people involved.

Ms Long said an alternative approach in Northern Ireland could see the creation of an administrative scheme, rather than primary legislation, but she said that would mean every affected individual would have to apply to have their cases reviewed.

She said the most straightforward solution was to add Northern Ireland to the Westminster legislation.

“I don’t think all is lost, I think there is still an opportunity at amendment stage for us to be able to get those amendments done,” she said.

“Government could do that very simply because we’ve pointed out to them where the amendments would be needed. If government don’t do it, then I would hope that some of our MPs will step up and do that and hope that the government would then accept those amendments, and work with us to actually deliver this.

“It makes sense because it’s the most efficient use of resources. But it also ensures that there is equality of treatment across the board, which there won’t be if we go down a different route.”

Ms Long indicated that her party colleague and North Down MP Stephen Farry would be prepared to propose such an amendment at Westminster.

The minister said while there were complications presented by Scotland having a different legal system, she said the only real change to the Bill required to reflect the Northern Ireland situation would be the inclusion of reference to the region’s Public Prosecution Service, in addition to the Crown Prosecution Service in England and Wales.

“In Northern Ireland, the real change, the most substantive change is the difference between CPS and PPS, so I mean we’re not talking here about extreme changes to legislation, they’re fairly minor tweaks that would allow us to be part of this wider legislation going forward,” she said.

The minister said she did not accept an argument advanced by the UK government that Stormont should deal with the issue because justice was a devolved issue.

“The scandal which actually created this problem was not in the devolved sphere, it was in postal services, and the Post Office, which are reserved matters,” she said.

“The actual compensation scheme, it is not a devolved matter, it is a reserved matter, and it will be dealt with by government.

“And so I think that this small issue of actually which courts delivered the sentences is almost irrelevant in that conversation.

“What they should be doing is expunging those factually inaccurate and unsafe convictions and that’s what the government should be doing, because ultimately this was a problem of their making, and I think the resolution should lie with them.”