Post Office postscript: what price justice?

In his comment piece here on 7 May, Jon Robins posed the question as to whether the Post Office (PO) scandal is just one example of miscarriage of justice in a system no longer fit for purpose (see ‘Post Office: far from the end of the road?’ NLJ 7 May 2021, p7). He queried in particular whether the Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC), established under s 8 of the Criminal Appeal Act 1995 in the aftermath of the 1970s miscarriage cases (Guildford Four; Birmingham Six; Maguire Seven; Judith Ward) and the ensuing Royal Commission on Criminal Justice report of July 1993, was fulfilling its intended function given the drastic reduction in its funding and, consequently, in the number of cases it referred to the Court of Appeal. Dr Robins referred to specific cases (Malkinson; Benquit) of convictions in