3. What conversations has the Counsel General had with the UK Government to ensure Welsh residents do not face barriers to justice? OQ57789

Thank you for the question. Matters relating to access to justice for Welsh citizens are always an important part of my agenda in the regular, frequent meetings that I have with UK Government Ministers.

Diolch, Counsel General. And you'll know—. Ensuring people in Wales have full and proper access to justice, as Members will know, is a clear passion of both of ours. And you will have heard me raise many a time in this Chamber, Counsel General, the injustices of the Post Office Horizon scandal, and the tragedies of Hillsborough and Grenfell. I applaud you and your leadership in this role, and the Minister for Social Justice, for sticking up and standing up for the people of Wales when it comes to justice, and I'm grateful for your constant advice in this area, and your commitment to work with me to see how we can use our current powers within Wales to help retip the scales of justice towards ordinary people. 

Counsel General, you'll be aware of the ongoing inquiry into the Post Office Horizon scandal, and, once that inquiry comes to a conclusion, will you commit to continuing to support the families who've been affected by that scandal in whatever they need, including their fight—their ongoing fight—to access to proper justice and also a meaningful level of compensation? 

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.