New law exonerates Post Office victims

The subpostmasters were convicted on the basis of inaccurate evidence provided by Horizon, the faulty IT accounting system used by the Post Office.

Law Society president Nick Emmerson said: ‘We recognise that the government has carefully considered the pressures facing our legal system and has set out some reasonable criteria.

'However, as always, the devil will be in the detail of such a complex proposal. An exceptional scheme such as this can only be justified by extraordinary circumstances. It cannot be treated as a precedent or justify further government intervention in the independence of our justice system.’