Post Office Horizon Scandal: Retail NI welcomes Rishi Sunak promise of justice but will seek clarity for Northern Ireland

Retail NI represents most of the Post Offices in Northern Ireland, and Chief Executive Glynn Roberts was speaking out after it was confirmed that hundreds of Post Office branch managers who were wrongly convicted in the Horizon IT scandal could have their names cleared by the end of the year.

Just 95 out of more than 900 convictions have been overturned but legislation to clear wrongly convicted postmasters in England and Wales is to be introduced in weeks.

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said they were victims of "one of the greatest miscarriages of justice in our nation's history".

Hundreds of subpostmasters were convicted of swindling money on the basis of evidence from the flawed Horizon accounting system, with MPs told the Post Office showed "not only incompetence but malevolence" in the way it acted against them.

The scale of the scandal has prompted the Government to adopt the unconventional approach of new legislation, rather than requiring individuals to challenge their convictions.

Retail NI Chief Executive Glyn Roberts welcomed the Prime Minister’s announcement as a step forward.

“We hope that this announcement will at long last provide justice and financial support to impacted sub-postmasters in Northern Ireland and the rest of the UK. We will be seeking clarification about how these proposals will apply here,” Mr Roberts said.

"I understand the strength of feeling people have after seeing 'Mr Bates vs The Post Office' as they have seen the horrendous impact that this has had on thousands of postmasters across the UK.

"This has led to calls for people to boycott Post Offices, but we need to point out that this will not have any effect on Post Office Ltd, but rather harm individual postmasters who are independent franchises and may have been hurt by the scandal themselves."It is already tough financially for Postmasters across Northern Ireland, but they are determined to keep supporting their customers and ensure that they are here to help them with all of their day to day needs."

Downing Street said the "ambition" was for the plan to be implemented by the end of the year. Mr Sunak said: "People who worked hard to serve their communities had their lives and their reputations destroyed through absolutely no fault of their own. The victims must get justice and compensation."

A quashed conviction will trigger £600,000 compensation – or more if individually assessed, as well as £75,000 for those part of group action against the Post Office.

Post Office minister Kevin Hollinrake acknowledged the Government’s plan would result in some people who actually did commit crimes having their convictions quashed and being able to claim compensation.

But he insisted it is the best way to address swiftly the injustice suffered by those caught up in the Horizon scandal who have seen “lives ruined by this brutal and arbitrary exercise of power”.