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Message
From: Peter D Johnsot
Sent: 20/07/2012 08:59:53
To: Mike Granville __& Mark S Wright
Kelleher
3; Alwen Lyons
cc: Dave Hulbert “h Andrew J Moore
Subject: Alan Bates - Draft FOI Response - Horizon Communication Failures
Attachments: Bates A - final response - 25 05 12.doc; FOI request 27.05.2012 Alan Bates.doc; Bates Alan - Draft v4 - CALS-3UQFLK
(4).doc
Good morning
After feedback from Rod and a discussion with Mike I have redrafted the response to Mr Bates’ request about Horizon
Communication failures. Can I ask you to take another look through the draft and advise me of your views? The text in
bold is the pertinent sections that I would like you to review.
Alana/ Alwen, this may be the first time you have seen a draft to the request, so I have attached copies of the request for
information and previous the response to Mr Bates for background
Attachments:
e Final Response to previous request 250512
e Fresh request for information 270512
e Draft v4 200712
Dave/ lan, after the redrafting can you check the any technical statements/ statements about the Horizon system and
back up are accurate please?
I am aiming to send the letter by close of play on Monday.
Kind regards
Pete
Peter D Johnson
Senior Engagement and Involvement Manager
Post Office Ltd
Network Services and Transformation
1st Floor, Bunhill Row Wing, 148 Old Street,
London, EC1V 9H
Mobile Number?”
Confidential Information:
This email message is for the sole use of the intended recipient(s) and may contain confidential and privileged information. Any
unauthorised review, use, disclosure or distribution is prohibited. If you are not the intended recipient please contact me by reply
email and destroy all copies of the original message.
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From: Peter D Johnson
Sent: 16 July 2012 12:51
To: Mike Granville; Chris Darvill; Mark S Wright; Rod Ismay; Ronan Kelleher; Sabrina Jethwa; Alwen Lyons; Simon Baker;
Dave Hulbert; Ian Trundell
Cc: Andrew J Moore
Subject: RE: Alan Bates - Draft FOI Response - Horizon Communication Failures
Importance: High
Good afternoon everyone
Please find attached the latest version of my response to Mr Bates. I have taken into account Mike and Chris’s comments
and hopefully drafted a response that better reflects our position. The RMG review panel are sitting tomorrow and will be
discussing a complaint made by Mr Bates about this late response. I would like to give them some comfort that we have
responded to the request, and as such would really appreciate a quick turnaround so that I can send this before noon
tomorrow, If you would like to discuss any aspect of the response please give me a call.
Please note there are a number of reasons for a communication failure, however I have only included a small selection.
Kind regards
Pete
Peter D Johnson
Senior Engagement and Involvement Manager
Post Office Ltd
Network Services and Transformation
1st Floor, Bunhill Row Wing, 148 Old Street,
Confidential Information:
This email message is for the sole use of the intended recipient(s) and may contain confidential and privileged information. Any
unauthorised review, use, disclosure or distribution is prohibited. If you are not the intended recipient please contact me by reply
email and destroy all copies of the original message.
From: Mike Granville
Sent: 09 July 2012 14:53
To: Peter D Johnson; Chris Darvill; Mark S Wright; Rod Ismay; Ronan Kelleher; Sabrina Jethwa
Cc: Alwen Lyons; Simon Baker
Subject: RE: Alan Bates - Draft FOI Response - Horizon Communication Failures
Peter
Looking at this reply — can I suggest that we need to include some more context such as an example of what a
communication failure actually is — presumably this is things such as a line connection being lost for an individual terminal
for a few minutes - to avoid any subsequent populist media line that seeks to wrongly make out that this is a large number
— for example claiming to have discovered that ‘there is one failure in every branch each year’. Also, is there any wider
context — for example is this the kind of thing that any large company system would have at these kinds of level.
Finally — I suggest that before we send a reply, that this draft is sent to Alwen Lyons and Simon Baker — as we are aware
that Alan Bates has some link into the Arbuthnot enquiry type work — it is important that they are sighted on this particular
correspondence and the response that is being given.
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Thanks
Mike
Mike Granville
Head of Stakeholder Relations
Post Office Ltd
1st Floor, 148 Old Street, London, EC1V 9HQ
From: Peter D Johnson
Sent: 07 July 2012 13:46
To: Chris Darvill; Mark S Wright; Rod Ismay; Mike Granville; Ronan Kelleher; Sabrina Jethwa
Cc: Cory Alexis; Dave Hulbert; Ian Trundell; Andrew J Moore
Subject: RE: Alan Bates - Draft FOI Response - Horizon Communication Failures
Hi all
Thank you all for your comments. I have taken these on board and adjusted the draft accordingly. Please find attached my
latest draft. Again we are hoping to send by close of play on Monday, any and all comments welcome.
With regard to context — would it help if we added detail around the number of Horizon terminals currently live within the
open and trading network?
Kind regards
Pete
Peter D Johnson
Senior Engagement and Involvement Manager
Post Office Ltd
Network Services and Transformation
1st Floor, Bunhill Row Wing, 148 Old Street,
London, EC1V 9HQ..... 5
Mobile Number:i....GRO_
Confidential Information:
This email message is for the sole use of the intended recipient(s) and may contain confidential and privileged information. Any
unauthorised review, use, disclosure or distribution is prohibited. If you are not the intended recipient please contact me by reply
email and destroy all copies of the original message.
From: Chris Darvill
Sent: 06 July 2012 12:43
To: Andrew J Moore; Mark S Wright; Rod Ismay; Mike Granville; Ronan Kelleher; Sabrina Jethwa
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Cc: Peter D Johnson; Cory Alexis; Dave Hulbert; Ian Trundell
Subject: RE: Alan Bates - Draft FOI Response - Horizon Communication Failures
Andy
I would delete the reference to “tardy response”. If we have missed the deadline for responding, I think it would be
sufficient to say that “We apologise for the delay in responding”.
{think the explanation regarding communication failures across the network needs to be simplified. [t was not entirely
clear what point we were trying to make. Needless to say any ambiguity in our response will be seized upon and it is,
therefore, important that our response is clear. Otherwise we simply open ourselves up to further requests or
challenges.
Going forward, please can you ensure that Sabrina is also copied in on these emails. Thanks.
Regards
Chris Darvill
Legal Servi
Post Office Ltd
148 Old Street, LONDON, EC1V 9HQ
GRO
From: Andrew J Moore
Sent: 06 July 2012 11:38
To: Chris Darvill; Mark S Wright; Rod Ismay; Mike Granville; Ronan Kelleher
Cc: Peter D Johnson; Cory Alexis; Dave Hulbert; Ian Trundell
Subject: Alan Bates - Draft FOI Response - Horizon Communication Failures
Hello all,
Please find attached our draft response to Mr Bates regarding Horizon Communication Failures.
REQUEST
‘in your response (your ref: KFME-8TQJVX) to my Freedom of Information request dated 26th April 2012 where you
clearly state that nowhere within The Post Office are you aware or have ever been notified of any Bit Error Rate testing
results of Horizon, you do confirm that Horizon does suffer from communication failures.
How many communication failures has Horizon suffered from in the last 12 months or is this information not logged or
recorded or ever made known to The Post Office?”
The request comes on the back of the last response Mr Bates received regarding “bit error rate testing” (also attached).
Dave Hulbert has provided a figure for the past 12 months (11,862) and also some background to why these failures
occur. We have used this in the draft and the finer detail that Dave provided is detailed below.
The response deadline is close of play Monday so I would be grateful if you would provide all your comments by 3pm on
Monday for Peter to review and make any changes necessary.
Many thanks
Andy
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Andrew Moore
Freedom of Information Team
2" Floor, 14 St. Peters Street
St. Albans
AL1 3AA
Incident levels fluctuate between 550 to 2000 per month. Network failures relate to the whole telecoms infrastructure
across our Horizon estate, which is vast. Added to this the complexity of the telecoms infrastructure in the UK, plus
consideration of all other factors such as environmental ones means that network failures are common in a branch estate
of our size. It would therefore seem unreasonable to trawl through the incident logs to pull out these failures, particularly
as the vast majority of these will be due to issues outside of Fujitsu and Post Office's direct control.
An example below re incidents out side of POL/Fujitsu’s control that may affect our ability to communicate with Branches.
I know that this one is not about a comms failure but an incident similar to this one could have affected
telecommunications [ remember the fire in the comms tunnel Manchester/Durham ] and reinforces Dave's statement.
Other incidents could be the contractor digging up the road and slicing through comms cables !
COMMUNITYSAFE.GOV.UK
Whitehall - fire in EDF substation
Whitehall - Fire in EDF substation has caused a power failure in immediate area. Alarms/lifts have been effected - Please
bring this to attention of entry staff as any entry measures may be effected. Update as required
Message sent at June 29, 2012 11:11
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