The news this week has been dominated by the appalling treatment of sub-postmasters who were accused of theft based on flawed evidence from the Post Office’s Horizon IT system. The recent ITV programme on this has been excellent.
These prosecutions have caused untold damage to the lives of innocent people over the past 20 years – leading to some being ostracised by their communities, marriages breaking down, and, sadly, even suicide. This is one of the greatest miscarriages of justice in our history.
In 2020, the Government established a Statutory Inquiry to investigate the matter, establish the facts and uncover exactly what went wrong. The inquiry’s interim report has now been published and ministers will provide a formal response shortly. This is vital as yet, nobody at either the Post Office or Fujitsu (the Horizon system developer) has been held directly accountable for this injustice.
Along with the inquiry, the government put in place numerous compensation schemes for the victims, paying out £148 million to around 2,700 victims so far. It is clear Fujitsu should be footing this bill as well.
Rightly, further plans to deliver justice for the victims have now been revealed. The government announced this week that it will bring forward legislation to quash all convictions that were based on this miscarriage of justice and will also introduce an upfront compensation offer to recognise the vital role of the group of 555 courageous postmasters who took the Post Office to court and first brought the scandal to the public eye.
The harm that these prosecutions have had on the lives of postmasters and their families is irreparable, and, for some, their lives will never be the same again. However, these plans to deliver justice will clear people’s names and ensure that they have swifter access to compensation. Lessons must also be learnt, people responsible held to account, and this injustice must never happen again.
On Wednesday it was Less Survivable Cancers Awareness Day. The day is organised by the Less Survivable Cancers Taskforce (LSCT), representing the six less survivable common cancers: cancers of the lungs, liver, brain, oesophagus, pancreas and stomach.
Over 90,000 people will be diagnosed with one of these cancers in the UK each year – a quarter of all cancer diagnoses. Sadly, only 16% of people diagnosed with one of these cancers will survive for 5 years or more., and these six cancers account for 40% of all cancer deaths. I was very pleased to meet with representatives from a number of different charities, including Pancreatic Cancer UK, The Roy Castle Lung Foundation and The Brain Tumour Charity. Having spoken to these charities, the message is very clear: spotting symptoms and getting an early diagnosis is vital to improving the survival rates for these cancers.
I also attended the APPG for Football meeting with the Professional Football Association (PFA) Chief Executive. We discussed the work around linking the PFA and Department of Education to help ex-footballers make the move into teaching. This is something I helped set up and I was pleased to hear that significant progress has been made. We also heard about the research into the long-term effects of heading the ball, as well as the an update on the upcoming independent football regulator legislation which is expected to new legislation brought forward very shortly.
