Errors in a number of pre-Horizon IT systems used at the Post Office could be linked to wrongful convictions, the Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC) has told MPs.
The statutory body also said it is “not beyond the realms of possibility” that it will pick up subpostmaster convictions that had no link to software.
During a business and trade select committee hearing examining the response to the Post Office Horizon scandal, the CCRC said it is currently assessing 35 potential miscarriages of justice of users of various Post Office IT systems.
Following ITV’s drama about the Horizon scandal, former subpostmasters who used a system known as Capture came forward with their stories. After campaigning, the CCRC began assessing convictions related to the software, which was also flawed.
Unknown numbers
Amanda Pearce, interim CEO at the CCRC, told MPs the organisation does not know the number of potential wrongful convictions related to Capture.
“We have 35 pre-Horizon applications; the reason we refer to them as pre-Horizon applications is because we know they don’t all involve Capture, but other computer systems,” she told MPs.
The CCRC has so far referred one Capture case to the Court of Appeal, and has also referred a user of a system known as the Automated Payment Service (APS), or Automated Payment Technology (APT).
The CCRC now refers to cases based on multiple technologies as pre-Horizon appeals, such is the variety of systems involved.
“We know that there were a number of IT systems in operation prior to Horizon, but there is a real lack of reliable information about these cases because they are around 30 years old,” said Pearce.
She added that there is a possibility there could be potential wrongful convictions related to other systems, and added: “We are also alive to the possibility that, given the basis that were referred the Horizon cases, not just because software was faulty but also lack of disclosure and investigation, there are wider considerations. It is not beyond the realms of possibility that there could be a case where there isn’t a software issue but there are issues around disclosure and investigation.”
James Arbuthnot, who has campaigned for justice for subpostmasters for over 15 years, agreed. “The entire Horizon issue began its public journey as an IT case, but it rapidly became clear that it was a human behaviour case at its heart,” he said. “And it rapidly became clear that the Post Office’s approach to prosecutions was simply outrageous with regard to the rule of law, its duties of disclosure and trying to give the subpostmasters a decent chance of a defence.
“The Post Office simply wanted to recover money, and that was all part of a journey towards making the Post Office saleable to the private sector as a going concern.”
Legislate for Capture
While hundreds of convictions based on evidence from the faulty Horizon system are being overturned through legislation, users of other systems, including Capture, are being processed through the CCRC.
During the select committee hearing, Post Office chairman Nigel Railton was asked whether, like with Horizon related convictions, legislation should be used to overturn them en masse. He said “yes”.
Asked whether there is a case for extending the legislation to Capture users, Pearce at the CCRC said: “There is a case for looking at it, absolutely.”
Pearce cited the age of people applying for convictions to be reviewed, emphasising that time is of the essence. A third of subpostmaster applicants to the CCRC are being made by the families of people that have died, and a third are over 70 years old.
But Ministry of Justice minister Alex Davies-Jones told the committee that using legislation to overturn the convictions is not currently appropriate.
“Parliament took the very unique position it did to legislate for this, and it would be quite the constitutional stretch to do that again unless it was exceptional circumstances,” she said. “There have to date not been any convictions overturned as a result of the Capture System.”
Higher numbers of overturned Capture-based convictions and more evidence could change this stance, said Davies-Jones.
But Arbuthnot said “it’s quite clear that they should extend” the legislation on Horizon convictions to include those based on Capture.
“It was passed at a time of public outrage because of the ITV drama, and that ought to apply much more strongly to the capture cases,” he said. “Because the Horizon legislation was passed in the teeth of strong opposition from the judges, who hated the idea of Parliament overturning judicial convictions, the Ministry of Justice is currently worried. And yet, that principle applies so much more to the Capture cases because there is no evidence now available.”
Select committee chair Liam Byrne put it to Pearce that “with the picture you have painted today, with the best will in the world, there is not a hope in hell we will be able to assemble all the information needed.”
She conceded: “It is very difficult, yes, and there will be cases where we just don’t have the information.”
Computer Weekly first exposed the scandal in 2009, revealing the stories of seven subpostmasters and the problems they suffered as a result of the Horizon system (see below a timeline of all articles since 2009).