By Sarah Atherton

MP for Wrexham

Like many of my Parliamentary colleagues across the House, I am appalled by the treatment of the sub-postmasters who were accused of theft based on flawed evidence from the Horizon IT system. This is the worst miscarriage of justice this century. The harm that these prosecutions have wreaked on the affected families over the past 20 years is irreparable, and I am as outraged as you are about what these people had to endure.

In the near future, the UK Government will be bringing new laws forward to overturn the wrongful convictions of hundreds of postmasters, meaning that victims do not need to wait years for the justice and compensation they rightly deserve.

The UK Government has already acted and is putting in place a number of measures to support the affected individuals and families:

• Appointing Sir Wyn Williams to review the decision-making processes that led to the scandal. I understand that Sir Wyn has published his interim report, and I have urged the Government to provide a timely response.

• Introducing new legislation (The Post Office (Horizon System) Compensation Bill) to overturn the wrongful convictions of hundreds of postmasters, meaning that individuals will be entitled to at least £600,000 in compensation.

• Bringing forward an upfront payment of £75,000, for 555 sub-postmasters pursued in civil cases by the Post Office.

• Speeding up the roll-out of compensation schemes, helping deliver swift support to the wronged.

Lessons should be learnt to ensure that an injustice of this magnitude never happens again, and I will be following this legislation very closely as it moves through Parliament in the near future. To see my full statement on the Post Office/ Horizon Scandal, please click on the ‘News’ section of my website: www.sarahatherton.org.uk.

Meanwhile, having received many complaints from constituents, I recently undertook a survey to understand residents experiences with mobile connectivity in the ‘not-spot’ area of Rossett. An unacceptable number of respondents stated that poor mobile signal is a barrier to accessing health, education and financial services, despite OfCom’s coverage checker stating that Rossett is, “likely to receive good coverage”.

Having discussed these issues with Wrexham Council, OfCom, UK Government Ministers, and Building Digital UK over the past few months, I met with representatives from FreshWave to request what they are doing to improve services for Wrexham residents. FreshWave recently signed an open-access agreement with Wrexham Council, which allows mobile network operators to use lampposts to boost mobile coverage. Whilst FreshWave’s work attempts to bridge the gap, it is only working to boost mobile phone signal within the city centre.

Most worryingly, given OfCom’s skewed predictions, Rossett is not covered by the Shared Rural Network which is a £1 billion UK Government initiative to ensure UK mobile phone operators deliver strong 4G coverage for those in rural areas. I am lobbying Ministers to ensure that OfCom’s Checker discrepancy is resolved, and I will keep residents updated on my progress.

Lastly, I wanted to congratulate CEO of Moneypenny, Joanna Swash OBE, and the former Governor of HMP Berwyn, Nick Leader OBE on receiving their honours.

Next week I look forward to sharing updates from my meeting with the Chief Executive of Wrexham Council, regarding the many issues, initiative updates and progress being made in Wrexham. Make sure to keep an eye out for the next ‘My View’.

If you are a resident in the current Wrexham constituency boundary and need my assistance with any local or national issues, please contact me on:

sarah.atherton.mp@parliament.uk.