Barriers to Justice

Part of 2. Questions to the Counsel General and Minister for the Constitution – in the Senedd at 2:45 pm on 16 March 2022.

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Photo of Mick Antoniw Mick Antoniw Labour 2:45, 16 March 2022

Well, can I thank you for that very important supplementary question? Because what you've highlighted, as you did with the Hillsborough issue, is what is one of the great injustices of the twenty-first century: the injustice of thousands of people being affected by what turned out to be a computer inadequacy with the Horizon computing system, which has resulted in large numbers of people having their lives absolutely destroyed or blighted, people who were imprisoned, their families broken up, their marriages broken up. There have been 72 appeals overturned so far; there are more to come. And often we forget that, in fact, there were something like 2,500 people who actually had allegations made against them and who repaid money to the Post Office that they never needed to repay, because they were not guilty of anything, but to avoid prosecution. So, the impact of this has been so enormous.

I'm very pleased that Sir Wyn Williams is the chair of the inquiry. It will obviously need to complete its work, but we have to ensure two things: one is that everything that can possibly be done to give those people affected justice has to be done; but, secondly, one of the things that quite often doesn't come out of inquiries is that we want to know how it happened, why it happened, how it can be avoided again in the future, and whether there are individuals within the Post Office structure who should be held accountable, because certainly some of the evidence in the inquiry so far indicates that when Post Office Ltd became aware, there was an attempt to actually brush it to one side. Now, that's not to prejudge the outcome of the inquiry and, no doubt, decisions will be made there, but it seems to me that there has to be accountability as well as compensation. I very much welcome the efforts that you have put in, and I will certainly, and I know Welsh Government will do all it can to support those Welsh citizens who've been affected in that way.