Rishi Sunak has said he wants compensation for victims of the Post Office Horizon IT scandal to be delivered “as soon as possible”.
Asked whether he supported quashing the remaining convictions, the Prime Minister said: “This is an absolutely horrific miscarriage of justice. Many of you in this room will have seen this drama and I would like to congratulate ITV on the fantastic job they have done with this drama.
“These things obviously started a long time ago and it’s right that they are properly considered. The story was horrific and people were treated absolutely badly. It was wrong and we will continue to address it. We should do everything we can to correct this.
“Over the last few years, my predecessors started that process and, following the inquiry, I actually approved the compensation scheme for the first time as Prime Minister and it is now being paid out, almost £150m has been paid out. “I can say that there are thousands of people who have been paid.”
“So people should know that we’re working on it and that we want to get this right. Money has been set aside. We’re currently looking into it. The question is, how can we speed up all of this? I’m very clear. I want to get it out as soon as possible. There are legal issues that people have had to go through. There are processes in place, and the Attorney General is meeting with the relevant ministers today to see if there is more that can be done to expedite them.I will explain some of those processes.”
