Speeches by Davies-Jones.

“I do not know how the Opposition dare. It is utterly shameful. I know that the shadow Secretary of State knows how complex this all is and how much it means to everyone involved. His party did nothing to solve this issue—the Conservatives did nothing for the families or to bring forward a duty of candour. He asks me to…”

“My understanding, Chair—I will refer to officials if this is not the case—is that these individuals have been told, but they have not been told that they are completely out of scope. They have not been told that they have been judged totally out of scope. All we have told them is that there is currently not enough evid…”

“We can only be sure about the evidence we currently have, Chair. On the basis of the evidence that we have had available to us as the Ministry of Justice, 574 out of that 1,002 have been told that they are eligible and within scope. However, those who have been written to and told they are not in scope have not been to…”

“Yes, and I am aware of that. I did say to officials that, if the case was brought up and Mrs Eaton discussed her case, I would feel obliged to respond. Mrs Eaton’s case is a prime example of how the data has failed us and we have had to get more data and evidence for the case. My understanding is that Mrs Eaton was tol…”

“I am very conscious not to talk about individual claims here.”

“Well, I would accept that one person who has had to go through the arduous issue of having to provide more information is one too many. However, as you will be aware, the requirements of the Act are quite strict and therefore quite limiting on us as the Ministry of Justice. Anyone who feels like their application has b…”

“Yes, that is correct, so it is out of the 1,002—around 3%.”

“It is an error rate of around 3%—around 30 people out of the 1,002.”

“That is correct. However, Mrs Eaton was not included in that figure. She has now been added to it.”

“Yes. Thank you, Chair, and thank you to the Committee. I was present for the last two sessions, but I have been following the Committee quite closely all day, and the direct testimony of victims in particular has been harrowing and difficult to hear. When we talk about figures and numbers, it is important to remember t…”

“Yes, and to date there have been none relating to Capture.”

“Numbers or more evidence showing that that was not the case, as was the case in Horizon. As I said, over 100 were overturned by the courts.”

“When Parliament took the unprecedented decision to legislate to overturn the convictions following Horizon, it was because it was an exceptional situation. Over 100 cases had been overturned in the courts before Parliament took the unique position to legislate for this. It would be quite the constitutional stretch to d…”

“Yes.”

“Yes.”

“No.”

“The compensation is paid from DBT; we are in charge of quashing convictions, so I will pass that over to my colleague.”

“Yes, potentially, and those individuals are self-identifying. They are coming forward themselves and coming through to us, and they are being assessed individually.”

“There are.”

“Yes, Chair. The individuals we have working on this are extremely dedicated in the Ministry of Justice. The caseworkers have taken this personally and to heart. We have got a brilliant and dedicated team of individuals who are seeking to right this wrong. The entire country has been captured by this grave miscarriage o…”