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Helen Watson
From: Emily B Springford ;
Sent: 21 October 2011 14:40
To: Rebekah Mantle; Sabrina Jethwa; Hugh Flemington; Anna Maxwell; Helen Watson
Subject: Horizon update
Privileged and confidential
Dear all,
I'd like to update you on various things learned / discussed today.
Fujitsu
The audit which Fujitsu intend to carry out relates to the new “Horizon Online” system which has been in place for
about a year. The audit was first requested by Mike Young (POL Chief Operating Officer) early this year as he
wanted to know that POL could be comfortable with the integrity of the new system, in light of the various challenges
made about the old system. It hasn't got started yet as there was a bit of confusion about the scope of the audit and
what steps to take. Fujitsu have now decided to use KPMG's IT forensics unit. They have had some scoping
discussions but no instructions have been agreed yet. They think it should take 2-3 months to complete. It seems
likely that the audit will generate documents relevant to the issues in the current disputes, which all concern the old
system. However, if challenges were made about the new system in future the audit report could potentially be
disclosable. We therefore agreed that Fujitsu would take steps to ensure that the audit report is privileged: in
common with POL’s approach to its own audit, the instructions will be framed as a request for information in order for
Fujitsu’s legal team to provide legal advice. The notes made by the audit team will be kept factual and any concerns /
comments will be kept in a central document which will form the basis for the final report. If any major alarm bells are
ringing, KPMG will stop work and contact Fujitsu's legal team.
Ernst & Young
We discussed the audit of Horizon which E&Y carry out each year as part of the preparation of our annual report and
accounts. E&Y have started this process leading up to next year's report. We agreed that it would be difficult to cloak
their work in privilege or stop it happening — it is part of the group's statutory reporting obligations, not a privileged
process. However Dave Hulbert will let E&Y know that, again, if they come across any major problems with the new
system, they should let us know straight away so that we can feed it into our strategy for the litigation and control the
document position as much as possible.
Gareth Jenkins
stephen Long at Fujitsu is going to ask Gareth Jenkins (their guru on the system, and expert witness in the Castleton
se) to join the meeting with Helen, Sabrina, me, Alison Bolsover and Andrew Winn, to help us completely
understand the nuts and bolts of our processes. I’ve emailed Stephen to let know the topics we want to cover and to
check if Gareth can do the week beginning 31 October.
Media coverage
The Comms team have had a query from a BBC journalist, Matt Projer, who seems to be doing a fairly full
investigation into the Horizon allegations. His latest tactic is to ask for all responses to FOI requests concerning
Horizon. Mike Granville is saying to Peter Johnson that he should consider whether the cost limit (18 hours’ work)
may be exceeded before starting work — if not, we will have to disclose this information. It seems likely that
Shoosmiths will try to generate as much media interest as possible to try to increase the pressure on us. We
obviously need to control the content of emails etc discussing responses to the media to make those privileged where
needed.
Mike Granville also told me that there has been some “splintering” in the subpostmaster community. The National
Federation of Subpostmasters is still robustly supportive of POL and Horizon. However it seems that some members
of the Fed have broken away for various reasons (leadership, planned modernisation in the network) and these
people seem to overlap with the members of the “Justice for Subpostmasters Alliance” which is challenging POL on
Horizon. The “breakaway” grouping also seems to be setting up a group within the CWU so we may get some
interest from the unions as well. Mike will keep his ear to the ground on this.
Criminal case
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Mike Granville also mentioned that he had heard from the Fed about a criminal prosecution brought against a Romec
employee who was accused of stealing £500 from a PO branch (Romec provide facilities management services to
Royal Mail Group). It appears that the prosecution has been stayed until February 2012 as a result of the press
coverage about Horizon — perhaps on the basis that the loss may be illusory. Rob G Wilson (Head of Criminal Law)
isn’t aware of the case — he thinks it may be a police prosecution. I'll see if Dave Pardoe (Senior Security Manager)
knows anything about it.
Please let me know if you have any thoughts/ / comments.
Kind regards
Emily
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