To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, whether he has plans to assess the legal presumption of reliability of computer evidence.
Answered on
17 May 2022
We have no plans to review the presumption, as it has wide application and is rebuttable if there is evidence to the contrary.
Nonetheless, given the concerns raised about Post Office Ltd’s Horizon IT system, the Government wants to be fully assured that there is a public summary of the failings associated with the system and that lessons are learnt from this dispute. That is why the Inquiry into the Post Office Horizon IT dispute was converted into a statutory inquiry with effect from 1 June 2021, with new powers to require the production of evidence and documents. The full, updated Terms of Reference (ToR) for the Inquiry are available on the Post Office Horizon IT Inquiry 2020 ToR page, and on gov.uk.
The Inquiry will aim to submit its findings to the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy in Autumn 2022. The final report will be published by the Secretary of State and the government will respond in due course.