Westminster has catastrophically failed, it must commit to ensuring justice for sub-postmasters — scottish national party

The Post Office Scandal has shocked and outraged so many of us and with good reason. As an SNP MP, I have been working for more than five years, alongside others, with the sub-postmasters

who run local post offices, seeking justice from the post office itself. Post offices fulfil a vital role in local communities. A report last year found they add £3.8bn of social value to

the UK. Right through the pandemic, the sub-postmasters running them were key workers —that is the kind of people they are. As much as moved online, Post Offices have dealt with more and

more things needing to be sent for delivery. As bank branches have closed, banks have pointed to post offices as potential ways for the public to gain access to cash This is why it is so

disheartening that those on the frontlines have been so failed by those who run the Post Office. > Last night I spoke in the House on the #PostOfficeScandal. >  > While the 

#MrBatesvsPostOffice drama has had a significant impact, > it is bittersweet feeling. For years we have tried to get the Gov to > act & deliver justice to the hundreds of innocent 

people. >  > Watch part of my speech⬇️ pic.twitter.com/bYJPp7hiAy >  > — Marion Fellows MP (@marionfellows) January 9, 2024 Although local post offices are run as their own

businesses, since the 90s, they have been compelled to use Post Office Ltd’s Horizon accounting program. This system has for a long time made up amounts of lost money and Post Office Ltd

demanded that the sub-postmasters pay these imaginary shortfalls, many were forced to. This is bad enough – a public body arguably defrauding community workers, but it gets worse. Post

Office Limited was able to prosecute these individuals. And due to this catastrophic failure of justice, many innocent people have immensely suffered. These cases, prosecuting people for

thefts of thousands of imaginary pounds that were never missing, based only an erroneous computer program, succeeded for over a decade. Post Office Ltd – and the UK Government which owns it

– claimed over and over again that there could not be an error, well past the point when they knew this was not true. Expert witnesses were brought in to back up the infallibility of their

systems. Successive Labour, Lib Dem and Tory ministers kept insisting that there could not be an issue. Even years into a case where over 500 postmasters who had been imprisoned, lost their

livelihoods or forced to close their doors – this case has been dramatized by ITV as “Mr Bates vs the Post Office”. Under the unionist parties, this dragged on. Ministers were distracted by

a privatisation which pushed Post Office to go harder on sub-postmasters, and to many in the press an accounting scandal didn’t seem interesting. But this was so many real people’s lives.

Many postmasters died without seeing justice. (We know of at least four suicides in Horizon cases.) > 👇 The Horizon-Post Office scandal illustrates just how deep the > failings of 

Westminster are. More interested in protecting the > establishment than the public. >  > ❌ Westminster only responds to calls for justice when they are > left with no other 

option. That is not good enough. > pic.twitter.com/sIcDHd9K1Q >  > — The SNP (@theSNP) January 10, 2024 SNP Members of Parliament have continually raised this in parliament. Mike

Weir raised it when it first became known in 2011, and onwards. I have led the Postal Affairs cross party group in Westminster and have worked closely with so many whose lives have been

changed for the worse by the arrogant behaviour of Post Office Limited. Following SNP calls, the UK Government have set up an inquiry. Following our calls, they made it a statutory inquiry.

This has been known about for years. There has been a book and a podcast series outlining the issues. Despite this going on for so long, there have been many postmasters coming forward as a

result of the recent ITV show. In December 2019, on the day of the general election, Post Office Ltd conceded the brought by 555 postmasters in court. Despite all this, no-one has been held

accountable. The Ministers who covered for Post Office now claim they were lied to. And no-one has been held to account. I am going to keep working with others across the political spectrum

to ensure justice can finally be done. > Glad there is now an investigation underway but the UK Gov, had > ample opportunity to investigate this matter & chose to ignore the > 

obvious injustice of the Post Office Horizon scandal. > Here is a copy of the letter I wrote to the Sec of State in 2020 > asking him to do just that. pic.twitter.com/4W8vtkFTC9 > 

> — Drew Hendry MP (@drewhendrySNP) January 7, 2024