To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update ahead of the introduction of the proposed Post Office (Horizon System) Offences (Scotland) Bill, including in relation to the potential overturning of any wrongful convictions of postmasters in Scotland that were based on evidence from the Post Office’s Horizon computer system. (S6O-03433)

As the member will be aware, the Scottish Government has introduced the Post Office (Horizon System) Offences (Scotland) Bill. Although we have always maintained that a United Kingdom-wide approach would be the best way to achieve parity for the sub-postmasters and sub-postmistresses across the UK who were convicted on the basis of tainted evidence from the Post Office Horizon system, the UK Government has chosen to exclude Scotland from the scope of its bill. The Scottish bill will therefore seek to ensure that those who are affected by the Horizon scandal can receive justice by having their convictions quashed, and postmasters will have access to compensation via the UK scheme in the same way as their English and Welsh counterparts.

Many of those who were prosecuted using Horizon evidence have already been seeking justice for wrongful prosecution, and all their lives have been monumentally affected by those failures. Given that the UK Government has so far declined to pursue the Post Office or its partner, Fujitsu, in respect of bonuses granted in relation to Horizon, has the Scottish Government considered addressing that corporate wrongdoing through the forthcoming bill or by other means?

Due to the nature of devolved and reserved matters, it would be somewhat difficult for the Scottish Government to address issues of corporate culpability. The on-going public inquiry by Wyn Williams is of critical importance. We stand by to play our part, as necessary, on any of those recommendations when they come. In his previous post, my colleague Neil Gray made strenuous representations and expressed the Government’s view to Fujitsu on its involvement with respect to the Post Office.

The UK-wide use of the tainted Horizon computer system evidence was the decision of the Post Office. As such, does the Cabinet secretary share my concern that the recent coverage makes it clear that, during the past number of years, those at the top of the Post Office repeatedly obscured and provided misleading information?

Following on from my reply to Gillian Mackay, I say to Rona Mackay that I have been following with interest the progress of the UK inquiry and I am, of course, concerned about the emerging information about the Post Office investigations and the prosecution of innocent postmasters. We must allow the inquiry to take its course. However, while the inquiry progresses, our focus firmly remains on addressing the grave miscarriages of justice through the Post Office (Horizon System) Offences (Scotland) Bill, which will bring parity of justice for postmasters in Scotland.

Scottish Labour welcomes the Post Office (Horizon System) Offences (Scotland) Bill. Will the Cabinet secretary consider that there might be related offences? I am aware of a case in which a sub-postmaster was accused of defrauding £35,000, but, to save his mother from jail, her son pled guilty to taking cash that we now know did not go missing at all, and he was subsequently convicted. Will the cabinet secretary be open minded that that man is as much a victim of the Horizon scandal as his mother was? Will she consider whether there is a way to fix that in the bill?

We will be open minded as we progress. We need to take considerable care, though—I say that to be up front and in the interest of parity—because we want to ensure that the Scottish bill mirrors the English, Welsh and Northern Irish Bills, as far as possible in Scots law, so that we have parity of access to justice and, crucially, to compensation.