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At the heart of most scandals is a conflict of interest, often more than one, which has been allowed to develop, not mitigated or managed, or simply ignored. Being able to recognise these is essential to good public administration. It is essential to good legislation (a header could be written about the policy corruption inherent in governments funding lobby groups to promote policies the government wants, then consulting with only these groups who, unsurprisingly, agree wholeheartedly with the policies suggested….

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The announcement of a law to overturn the subpostmasters’ convictions has provoked some concern amongst m’learned friends, on constitutional grounds. Are these valid? Why is the government in this position? The dilemma: if every convicted subpostmaster in the last 25 years applied to the Criminal Cases Review Commission (“CCRC“) to have their convictions reviewed and referred to the Court of Appeal, even if they started tomorrow, it would taken an inordinately long time to deal with them, even if the…

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The judgment It wasn’t even close. Every argument of the Scottish government was rejected by Lady Haldane. The S.35 judgment should have come as no surprise. Despite the much touted claims that the GRR Bill had been carefully considered and consulted on over many years, in reality the SNP and Greens had refused to acknowledge or engage with the very many feminist groups raising objections and concerns and evidence of problems. It consulted only with lobby groups they funded (£900,000…

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Lady Haldane will issue her judgment on the Scottish government’s challenge to Westminster’s S.35 Order on the GRR Bill at ca. midday Friday. It will be the first on how far, if at all, Westminster can limit the Scottish government’s devolved legislative powers. It will also have implications for the Equality Act and how trans rights affect women’s rights. That there is a clash between them has not been in doubt since the High Court’s July 2021 decision on women’s…

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It was not the Commission which changed the law allowing the Post Office to prosecute subpostmasters on the basis of flawed unreliable evidence. But MPs. Parliamentary scrutiny should mean something, shouldn’t it? Let’s see what it actually meant here. How did MPs discharge their function? Many are lawyers. One of the much touted benefits is meant to be that they can properly scrutinise such legislation and understand its implications. MPs also get expenses to pay for researchers.  Did they ask…

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What was the one development without which the Post Office scandal could not have happened? In a bitter irony, tinkering with a law enacted following a serious miscarriage of justice – the Confait case – the Inquiry report (yes, another one!) is here) enabled what is now the worst miscarriage of justice in English history. The law is the Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984 (“PACE”); the tinkering is to S.69 – its removal and replacement by – well, nothing. …

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A key issue in the Post Office (“PO”) scandal is what the government, was doing – or not – while it happened. It is not within the inquiry’s scope, that being written by politicians and civil servants whose behaviour, or that of their predecessors, would otherwise be uncomfortably scrutinised. Let’s look anyway. The self-image of publicly owned entities is exemplified by the National Coal Board. Miners proudly held signs saying collieries were now managed ‘On Behalf Of The People‘. Alas,…

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There comes a point in many investigations when you know exactly what has happened, why and who is at fault. It may not mean its end. But the essential findings are clear, no matter what’s needed to colour in the whole picture. What happened on Tuesday at the Post Office (“PO”) Inquiry was such a moment. There were two events. The first was the evidence of Elaine Cottam, eviscerated here by Nick Wallis as an “obtuse, thick-as-mince, malevolent incompetent”. She…

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