Question reference: S6W-25210
- Date lodged: 6 February 2024
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Current status: Answered by Angela Constance on 21 February 2024
Question
To ask the Scottish Government when (a) officials and (b) ministers first became aware of any concerns regarding the Post Office’s Horizon IT system.
Answer
Management of the Post Office is a reserved matter for the UK Government, and the Scottish Government has no role in the investigation of miscarriages of justice, which is a matter for the independent Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission.
Issues regarding the Post Office’s Horizon IT system were in the public domain from 2009.
The first record the Scottish Government has of any official or minister being made directly aware of any concerns regarding the Post Office’s Horizon IT system, is in an email from a member of the public dated 23 January 2020 addressed to the then First Minister. This email related to calls for a Public Inquiry into the Horizon IT system, a matter which is reserved and falls into the responsibility of the UK Government.
The Scottish Government was first formally made aware of concerns regarding the Post Office’s Horizon IT system by the Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission (SCCRC) on 2 July 2020, at quarterly sponsorship meeting with Scottish Government officials.
Following this, on 29 September 2020 the then Cabinet Secretary for Justice was made aware by officials in the Scottish Government that the SCCRC intended to write out to 73 people with criminal convictions potentially affected by issues arising from the Post Office’s Horizon computer system, and encouraging all those who may have suffered a miscarriage of justice to make contact with it.