It is for the courts to quash the Post Office convictions – and then prosecute the guilty

Editorial: Rather than rushing through an act of parliament to clear the names of those wrongly convicted of theft – which would set a dangerous legal precedent – there is a better way for justice to be done

(Dave Brown)

Bowing to intense political and public pressure, and perhaps pre-empting any forcible forfeiture, the former chief executive of the Post Office, Paula Vennells, has handed back her CBE with immediate effect. Though late in coming, this gesture represents another small step forward in the subpostmasters’ long walk to justice.

Ms Vennells has done the right thing, and said she is “truly sorry for the devastation caused to the subpostmasters and their families, whose lives were torn apart by being wrongly accused and wrongly prosecuted as a result of the Horizon system”.

She knows better than most that she still has many questions to answer about her role in the scandal, and about the decisions she made as head of the Post Office between 2012 and 2019. So, too, do her predecessors in charge, Adam Crozier and Dame Moya Greene. They have provided witness evidence to the current judge-led public inquiry, but that is unlikely to be the end of the matter.