Commentary on provisions of Act Section 2: Meaning of "relevant offence"
Section 2 gives the meaning of "relevant offence" with reference to several conditions set out in the subsections. All of the conditions must be satisfied for an alleged offence to be quashed by this Act.
	Subsection 2(2) sets out Condition A which is that the offence was alleged to have been committed between specified dates. The first date – 23 September 1996 – is the date on which the Horizon pilot system began to be rolled out to post office branches. The final date – 31 December 2018 – marks the point at which the rollout of the current version of the Horizon System (HNG-A) was concluded. The HNG-A system was found in the Government Litigation Order High Court case to be "relatively robust". The Department is not aware of any cases prosecuted by the relevant prosecutors involving the HNG-A system and therefore has concluded that there is no reasonable case to extend the period beyond the conclusion of the use of the previous versions of Horizon. This range of dates therefore encompasses the whole timeframe of the Horizon scandal.
	Subsection 2(3) sets out Condition B which is that the offence is one of a list of specific offences. These are offences of dishonesty which were prosecuted in Horizon-related cases, and include ancillary offences, which are defined in subsection 2(7).
	Subsection 2(4) sets out Condition C which details the relationship between the convicted individual and the Post Office.
	Subsection 2(5) sets out Condition D which is that the acts constituting the offence were carried out in connection with or working for the purposes of post office business. This provision therefore excludes unrelated offences which individuals working in post offices might have coincidentally committed during the relevant time period, such as theft from an unrelated shop. The relationship conditions outlined in Conditions C and D are drafted to encompass the range of working and other relationships which convicted individuals had with the Post Office. They extend to family members or others who did not have a direct employment or contractual relationship with the Post Office but were nevertheless carrying on a post office business or working in a post office branch for the purposes of a post office business.
	Subsection 2(6) sets out Condition E which requires that either the Horizon system was being used for the purposes of that post office business at the time of the alleged offence, or the offence was alleged to have been committed over a period of time and the Horizon system was being used for the purposes of the post office business for all or part of that period.
	Subsection 2(7) gives definitions of terms in this section. It defines the offences listed in subsection 2(3), including reference to the relevant statutes for each offence. It also provides that "ancillary offence" includes the inchoate versions of those offences.