RLITO000040
RLITO000040
Nicholas Brown MP
House of Commons
LONDON
SW1A OAA
30 December
Dear Mr Brown
I have been asked to reply to you directly on the Parliamentary Question that you raised
as follows;
To ask the Secretary of State, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills, what
recent assessment he has made of the performance of the Horizon computer
programme; and what (a) errors relating to the reconciliation of accounts were reported
and (b) remedial action was taken in the latest period for which figures are available.
(26688)
The Horizon computerised accounting system operates in all branches in our network of
over 11,800 Post Office® branches and has done so for over 10 years, processing up
to 750 transactions a second across the country at peak times. The system and the
Processes around it offer a very high level of security and resilience and are designed to
ensure that should part of the system or equipment fail that the integrity of the
accounting records are always maintained. The system has proved to be very robust
since its introduction.
The Horizon system was fully tested at the time of the nationwide implementation and
all new software releases are also subject to rigorous testing prior to going live in order
to assure the accuracy of the accounting processes. For example, the testing for the
latest upgrade to the system introduced over the past year was independently assured
by Wipro as being ‘best practice’ (Wipro is amongst the largest global IT services
companies in the world and recognised experts for Product Engineering and Testing).
In ongoing performance, information security management systems are accredited to
industry standards and there are extensive controls to ensure data validation and
reconciliation. A transaction log is available for every branch and full audit logs of all I
system and user activity and transactions are securely sealed, backed up and retained
to provide an evidential and investigative repository,
—@.
www.postoffice.co.uk
Post Office Ltd is registered in England and Wales. Registered No. 2154540, Registered Office 148 Old Street, London, EC1V 9HO.
Post Office and the Post Office logo are registered trade marks of Post Office Ltd.
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The system is based on the principles of ‘double entry book keeping.’ If an accounting
issue is identified at a particular branch (which may have been caused by, for example,
incorrect keying of a transaction by the subpostmaster), there are full processes in place
between the Post Office Ltd’s central accounting team and the individual subpostmaster
to investigate and resolve such issues and identify the responsibility. It is important to
note that these are the kinds of issues that can occur in all businesses (incorrect data
entries by branch staff, incorrect amounts of cash taken etc). These are user issues and
are not examples of the Horizon system itself creating errors,
All subpostmasters and branch managers are able to utilise the reporting functions
within Horizon and to perform counts of their cash and stock in order to confirm their
accounting position on a timely basis
The Horizon computer system has been a Major factor enabling the efficient operation
of the Post Office network to the benefit of customers, subpostmasters and staff. It is a
robust system which operates with full integrity and is fully fit for purpose,
I hope this information is helpful to you.
Managing Director
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