Speeches by Alexander.

“It might help if I describe what the process has been to identify these individuals. So far, we have assessed 87% of the individual cases of which we are aware—”

“We had been provided with information by the Post Office and by the Crown Prosecution Service. That equated to 936 individuals. Since that time, we have had a further 40 individuals self-identify, believing that they are in scope of the Act. On the information that the Post Office and the CPS provided to us, there were…”

“It did not. If you think back to the legislation that was passed, there were five conditions that had to be met in order for a conviction to be deemed in scope. They related to the date of the offence; the type of offence; the status of the individual as either employed by the Post Office or carrying on business in rel…”

“On the police national computer, the date of the offence or the offence type might not have matched the court record. That was why we chose to request all the records from the courts.”

“That is completely right. We have essentially been piecing together the bits of a jigsaw puzzle.”

“That is how I would characterise it, yes.”

“It is possible that a further individual could come forward and say to us that they believe that they are in scope of the Act. We are confident that we are aware of the vast majority of people who have convictions that are in scope of the Act, but it is not impossible that somebody else could come forward who we are un…”

“If staffing proved to be the constraint, I would of course consider extra resources, but we have now assessed 822 of the 949 cases that we are aware of in England and Wales, so the vast majority of the work has been done. We are starting to come to the end of the road in finding addresses for the 61 individuals I talke…”

“No. There are certain things that we are waiting for. At the moment, the casework team is waiting for a return from the credit referencing agency Equifax. Some of the problems we have encountered are because we simply do not have addresses for 61 individuals. There have been lots of different routes that we have pursue…”

“I have asked that question. I asked it back in July. I also requested a weekly progress update as soon as I got into the role, because I recognised that this was going to be a massive priority. I am confident that the resource that we have dedicated to the casework function in the Ministry of Justice is enough at the m…”

“Twenty-two.”

“Not to my knowledge.”

“The Act introduced by the last Government, as you will know, did not include convictions that were imposed in Scotland. Justice is obviously a devolved matter, and the Government at the time took the decision for responsible Ministers to remain accountable for the decisions taken in their jurisdictions. You will know t…”

“I think that might be a question that Minister Thomas can answer.”

“There is a small number of cases that we are still working on, yes.”

“It is my understanding that we will have carried out all the assessments by early January on all the cases that we are aware of. There is a cohort of individuals whose convictions fall outside the scope of the Act. I can break that down further for you.”

“Correct. There are 145 individuals to whom we have written to ask for more information. We have also assessed 155 individuals in England and Wales and confirmed that they have no convictions that fall within the scope of the Act. I can break that 155 down if you are interested.”

“The number that I have for England and Wales is 522.”

“The figure that I have is that 949 individual cases have been or are being considered. I can ask Ed to comment in detail on how we arrived at that figure.”

“No. We have made it a priority in the Department.”