The First Minister:

Let us be clear that it took an ITV drama to get the UK Government to take action, even though we have been told by hundreds of sub-postmasters and sub-postmistresses up and down the country that they were lied to. Let us not forget that that is what spurred the UK Government into action, not the desperate pleas of sub-postmasters up and down the country.

Let us go back to the point that the Lord Advocate made very clearly in the chamber, which was that the Crown Office was, in her words, “misled” and given false reassurances by the UK Post Office time and again.

There are many institutions that, given the harrowing testimonies, including the one that Douglas Ross just articulated, will be answerable for what they did and the action that they took. I fully expect—I am certain that it will be the case—that the Crown Office will fully co-operate with the public inquiry that is under way.

On why the Crown Office chose to prosecute cases after 2013, the Lord Advocate laid out the fact that there was guidance to prosecutors in 2013 in relation to Horizon cases, and, in 2015, the Crown Office stopped prosecuting cases that were sufficiently dependent on Horizon data.

The current Lord Advocate is responsible and answerable for the Crown. She has already answered questions about what took place in 2013, and she has said that, if MSPs want a further opportunity to question her, she will make herself available.