Post Office’s behaviour ‘just as bad’ with Capture as Horizon, says Arbuthnot

The Post Office’s behaviour was “just as bad” in relation to subpostmasters affected by the Capture system as those impacted by Horizon, long-time campaigner Lord Arbuthnot has said.

Capture is an IT system that was used by subpostmasters from 1992 to 1999, before the infamous Horizon system was introduced.

The Kroll report, published in September, found there is a “reasonable likelihood” that this accounting software was also faulty and could have created cash shortfalls.

Conservative peer Lord Arbuthnot urged the Government to take action to speed up the process of overturning potential wrongful convictions related to Capture.

“Just as bad”

He said on Thursday: “It is now clear from the Kroll report that the Post Office’s behaviour in relation to the Capture system was just as bad as its behaviour in relation to Horizon.”

He told peers that the Horizon Compensation Advisory Board, on which he sits, wrote to Justice Secretary Shabana Mahmood last month arguing there is “no difference between the Horizon victims and the Capture victims in the question of whether they should have their convictions overturned”.

Responding, business minister Baroness Jones of Whitchurch said: “We were, of course, concerned to learn about the issues outlined in the Kroll Report, which related to the Capture system.

“However, the report didn’t comment on whether the convictions are unsafe.

“The Government is committed to responding to the report and it will be published next week.

“In the meantime, convictions in relation to the Capture software are being reviewed by the Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC).

“The UK Government and the Post Office are assisting them with their requests for information and I would encourage all those who believe they have been wrongly convicted to contact the CCRC.”

Concerns

Lord Arbuthnot acknowledged “understandable concerns” over legislation passed in May to quash the criminal convictions of subpostmasters affected by the Horizon scandal, as some people “don’t like the idea” of Parliament overturning judicial decisions.

However, he suggested an alternative arrangement – first proposed by former Lord Chief Justice Lord Burnett for the Horizon victims – to help with the process of convictions being overturned by judges.

This proposal involves the Justice Secretary taking a power to refer cases to the Court of Appeal and putting in place a statutory presumption that any convictions are unsafe, unless there is evidence to the contrary.

Business minister Lady Jones argued that this would be a “significant departure from existing appeals processes and any further exploration of such an approach would need careful consideration, not just for this case, but potentially for other cases as well”.

She said: “That’s not to say we are dismissing it but it would be under review.”

Difficulty

The minister added: “I would emphasise that, unlike Horizon, we don’t yet have the evidence that the flaws in the Capture system resulted in wrongful convictions – in fact the Kroll report is clear on this point, stating that Kroll does not provide comment on whether any convictions arising from the subspostmasters using Capture could be considered unsafe.

“Part of the problem with the Kroll report is they had some difficulty – because it was relating back to the 1990s – in getting the documentation to assess whether that was the case or not.”

Lady Jones noted that a key difference between the Capture and Horizon platforms is that Capture was not networked to a central system, which meant the data in Capture could not be accessed or manipulated from elsewhere.

She said: “Notwithstanding that, we are looking at whether or not there have been miscarriages of justice.”

The minister told peers that the Court of Appeal has not yet overturned any convictions relating to the use of Capture but that the CCRC is considering five potential cases.

Lord Burnett himself backed the Government, saying: “I fear on this occasion that in praying in aid the scheme I proposed for the Horizon problem to deal with a constitutional solecism, we are not yet there with Capture.”

The independent crossbench peer added: “In our constitutional arrangements, the separation of powers and rule of law suggest that courts should deal with wrongful convictions and overturn wrongful convictions if they are established as wrongful convictions.

“In this instance, it is much better to wait for the Criminal Cases Review Commission to refer some cases to the Court of Appeal, which will then deal with them by looking at all of the facts, evidence and argument and, if there are problems, then quash the convictions.”