Therese has written for the East Anglian Daily Times today on the Horizon/Post Office scandal, Israel/Gaza and military action to tackle Houthi piracy 
"The Horizon/Post Office scandal brought to life and public knowledge by a great ITV drama, is one of the greatest miscarriages of justice of our time. Prosecutions started in the 2000’s and the majority were undertaken by 2009. People who worked hard to serve their communities had their lives and reputations destroyed through rigid reliance on a computer system which has now been exposed. The doggedness of affected subpostmasters with help from some MPs ultimately led to convictions being overturned by the courts. Prior to the convictions being overturned and thanks to the then minister Paul Scully who rightly wanted this looked at in more detail, after rejecting the advice of officials, the government established a judge-led inquiry in 2020 – which is still ongoing. This inquiry was upgraded after the Court of Appeal judgment with extra powers available to compel witnesses and demand evidence - with fines or imprisonment for non-compliance. However, the consequences are that the inquiry is taking longer than originally expected.
The pace of action required to right this wrong has been accelerated by the action announced by Prime Minister Rishi Sunak last week – to introduce new legislation to provide a blanket exoneration for those who were wrongfully convicted. Now, this is unprecedented for a government with the support of Parliament to legislate to overturn court convictions. It is likely to be complex legislation and will take some time to prepare. In the meantime, while compensation routes have been available for some time and indeed the government was already taking legislation through Parliament to facilitate compensation, there will be £75,000 in up-front compensation to the group of postmasters who brought this injustice to light, giving them support now while they have their individual claims assessed. This builds on the £148 million to 2,700 victims that has already been paid out. I will, of course, be voting in Parliament to clear the names of postmasters and help get the victims the justice they deserve.
In my time as a Minister, you know your time is limited and many issues come onto your desk with lots of advice from diligent civil servants. However, it is the role of Ministers to scrutinise, challenge and if necessary, reject the advice given. In my advice to new ministers, I say that there is never a stupid question from a minister. Thank heavens Paul Scully did question what was happening on Horizon and that we are now accelerating justice for those affected.
It has been over a hundred days since the abhorrent terrorist attacks were launched by Hamas on Israel and there are still hostages inside Gaza. I think it's right that Israel has a right to defend itself, restore its security and seek to remove the threat from Hamas. Israel should also abide by international humanitarian law and make every effort to target its campaign on Hamas leaders and operatives, rather than civilians. UK military assets have been deployed to the Mediterranean to reinforce regional stability and avoid escalation. The Government has provided significant amounts of humanitarian aid to alleviate the dreadful situation for civilians. Clearly, I want to see a peaceful end to this situation. I know that the Government will be using its levers to achieve that aim.
Separately, Houthi-sponsored pirates have been threatening ships and shipments – which is having a direct impact on trade, distribution of food and the lives of seafarers. These are the same ships that come to the Port of Felixstowe. I agree with the air strikes and other military action taken to target these pirates."
Image: The East Anglian Daily Times.
