The Scottish Conservatives have called for the Lord Advocate to face parliamentary scrutiny over Crown Office failings in the Horizon Post Office scandal.
At First Minister’s Questions, Douglas Ross said the process of clearing innocent people’s names must be “accelerated” in Scotland.
Dr Andrew Tickell, senior law lecturer at Glasgow Caledonian University, said this week: “The revelation that the Crown Office knew of problems is huge.
He added that Scotland was “just at the beginning” of addressing the miscarriage of justice, while England and Wales were “much, much further down the road”.
The Scottish Conservative leader said the “actions of the Crown Office in Scotland should trouble us greatly”.
He highlighted that the Crown Office decided not to proceed with a case in January 2013 because of “issues with Horizon”, according to notes from the Procurator Fiscal at the time.
He raised comments from Stuart Munro, convener of the Law Society of Scotland’s criminal law committee, who said this week that the Procurator Fiscal should have gone public.
He said: “The Procurator Fiscal has a legal duty to disclose relevant information to those accused of crimes, and that duty continues even after a trial is concluded. As soon as the Fiscal became aware of concerns about the reliability of Horizon, that should have been disclosed.”
Scottish Conservative Leader Douglas Ross said: “The Horizon Post Office scandal is a horrendous miscarriage of justice that ruined hundreds of lives.
“Politicians of all parties will rightly reflect on what they should have done sooner.
“The UK Government has now acted to overturn the wrongful convictions of innocent victims.
“The SNP Government must work constructively with the UK Government to quickly pass legislation that clears innocent people’s names.
“The process in Scotland must be accelerated.
“There are serious questions for the Crown Office to answer. It seems they were aware of concerns about the Horizon system in 2013, more than 10 years ago.
“Good people were criminalised because of an IT failure that they had nothing to do with. It is right that no stone is left unturned in seeking answers.
“The Crown Office in Scotland must be transparent.
“The Lord Advocate should urgently come to the Scottish Parliament to be questioned about this scandal.”