Campaigners outside the High Court - Justice Secretary Alex Chalk (Image: PA/LBC)
Justice Secretary Alex Chalk hinted Horizon developer Fujitsu should have to pay towards the Post Office compensation scheme.
Mr Chalk said “polluters should pay” when asked if the firm should contribute towards redress.
Hundreds of subpostmasters were convicted of swindling money on the basis of evidence from the flawed Horizon accounting system.
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When asked whether Fujitsu should pay towards the Post Office compensation scheme, Mr Chalk said: "Polluters should pay, in simple terms.
"Now, the reason why this has to take its course is because Sir Wyn Williams is the independent judge who's considering this, and indeed, he's been considering it since 2021.
"This is a huge issue that's taken a considerable period of time, he expects to conclude his report later this year. And of course, that is going to want to consider the culpability of all the principal actors, including Fujitsu who are the authors of the Horizon system.
"It is, however, important for that to take its course. So that report having been concluded, other authorities be the police or other investigators might make a decision on where the evidence should take them.
"That will be the moment for accountability to really bite."
Post Office (Image: Getty)
Ministers have drawn up plans to allow new laws that will allow all convictions to be overturned instead of victims having to make individual court appeals.
Payments of ￡600,000 will be handed out to all those who are exonerated.
Mr Chalk also said the UK must also brace for “some guilty people” receiving an acquittal.
He said: "We have to be ready as nation for the fact that by doing this there will be some guilty people who will be acquitted and that is extremely uncomfortable," he said.
"But as the great William Blackstone said in the 18th century, better 10 guilty people escape than that one innocent man is made to suffer.
"So that is something we have to recognise and steel ourselves for as a nation."
Faulty Horizon software began to be rolled out in Post Office branches in 1999.
Twenty years later the High Court ruled it contained a number of “bugs, errors and defects” and there was a “material risk” that shortfalls in branch accounts were caused by the system.
By then hundreds of innocent men and women had been jailed or lost their homes and livelihoods as they were pursued relentlessly for supposed shortfalls.
Justice Secretary Alex Chalk (Image: Getty)
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Mr Chalk also said there is "a very strong case" for the government to look again at private prosecutions.
"I've spoken to Sir Bob Neill, and he's raised on the floor of the House, one particularly pertinent recommendation," Mr Chalk said.
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"And this has to do with the level of supervision, it does seem to me that there is a very strong case to look again at that very closely.
"So that having been said it's important to recognise that there is a whole suite of private prosecutors ranging from local authorities, the Environment Agency, to DWP, and so on.
"So, we're going to have to consider these more generally. But I think the recommendations they make bear careful examination; I'll be doing exactly that."
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