THE Horizon scandal rightly dominated the Parliamentary agenda last week. To be fair, progress is being made, but much more needs to be done.

It is right there should be legislation to exculpate those wrongly convicted. Those wronged individuals should not have to go through a complicated and perhaps painful process to prove their innocence.

The Scottish Government working in tandem with Westminster makes sense. That blanket action may result in a few wrongdoers of other crimes being exonerated but the victims of this appalling tragedy must come first. Justice requires that.

But there is still much to do as the compensation offer is totally inadequate for the suffering endured. That needs addressed but thankfully the Government are also recognising these and other costs must be met by those who caused it, rather than the public purse. The culprits here are big corporations and they must pay.

We need to find out who knew what and when. This has been a cover-up of gargantuan proportions. Errors can be made in software engineering. The crime has been in not simply refusing to acknowledge it but seeking to blame others when it was obvious they were innocent or at minimum there was serious doubt over culpability. Those involved in what is frankly a conspiracy must be punished severely.

I also raised Grangemouth Refinery last week. Research from the Commons Library showed that none of the top 25 oil-producing nations lack a refinery. Scotland and the UK are 21st. The only oil-producing nations that lack a refinery both produce significantly less and are mainly developing nations such as the Republic of Congo.

It is perverse to be an oil-producing nation and lack a refinery. The environmental damage of shipping it for refining undermines the arguments for using your own resource rather than importing it.

Scotland’s oil should be refined in Scotland. Both our economy and the environment demand that.