Post Office (Horizon System) Offences (Scotland) Act 2024

9 Interpretation

(1) In this Act—

• “conviction” means—

  (a)

  a conviction by or before a court, or

  (b)

  a finding in any criminal proceedings (including a finding linked with mental disorder or in respect of which an admonition or absolute discharge is made) that a person has committed an offence or done the act or made the omission charged,

  and “convicted” is to be read accordingly,

• “Horizon system” means any version of the computer system known as Horizon (and sometimes referred to as Legacy Horizon, Horizon Online or HNG-X) used by the Post Office, other than the version referred to as HNG-A,

• “postal services” has the same meaning as in the Postal Services Act 2011 (see section 27 of that Act),

• “Post Office” means any of the following—

  (a)

  the Post Office,

  (b)

  Post Office Limited or Post Office Counters Limited (registered number 02154540),

  (c)

  Royal Mail Group Limited, Consignia Public Limited Company or Royal Mail Group plc (registered number 04138203),

• “post office” means any premises or vehicle in Scotland from which postal services are provided (whether alone or with other services) directly to the public,

• “post office business” means the business of providing postal services (whether alone or with other services) from a post office,

• “relevant offence” has the meaning given by section 2.

(2) Nothing in this Act affects any power of a court to quash a conviction to which this Act does not apply.