FUJ00243204
FUJ00243204
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FUJITSU
Nick Read
Post Office Ltd
100 Wood Street
London
EC2V 7ER
By email only
Date: 8 July 2024
Dear Nick,
I refer to your letter of 30 May 2024.
am glad that we both share a commitment to learn lessons from the Post Office Horizon scandal and
to ensure that the appalling treatment of postmasters, and the miscarriages of justice that occurred,
could never happen again. That was the reason for my writing to you. I was seeking to bring to your
attention concerning conduct exhibited by members of your organisation.
In simple terms, the Post Office is requesting that FSL give expert opinion evidence to be used in
criminal proceedings against postmasters and post office workers.
In your letter, you rightly note that the content of any witness statement is a matter between the police
and FSL. However, I consider it necessary to address this issue with you because the request was made
by Post Office and because I consider the request to be entirely inappropriate, particularly in the light
of the evidence being uncovered at the Inquiry.
I enclose with this letter an email chain which contains emails from a senior member of the Post Office's
investigations team, John Bartlett, to Dan Walton in our account team. Mr Bartlett continues the prior
narrative of seeing the Post Office as the “victim” and requests a witness statement to address “the
reliability of the Horizon system and the admissibility of evidence produced from it Mr Bartlett
suggests that a failure to do this would ‘rightly be interpreted by the Police and prosecutors as POL
and Fujitsu not having faith in the reliability of the data with the obvious outcome resulting”.
Awitness statement from FSL attesting to the reliability of the Horizon system and of data from it in
criminal proceedings would amount to expert opinion evidence. FSL is incapable of providing expert
opinion evidence as it is neither independent nor has it sufficient information to provide such an
opinion.
As the Post Office is well aware, there have been and there continue to be bugs, errors and defects in
the Horizon system. Further, FSL currently has, and previously had, access to branch transaction records.
Your letter of 30 May 2024 also acknowledges the existence of other matters (beyond the Horizon
system) which could have operated to create innocent discrepancies in branch accounts including
“.mis-keys, or omissions when remitting cash or stamp stock based on Horizon data .." by end users.
In addition to FSL, the Horizon system is reliant on the delivery of services by Post Office and third
parties retained by the Post Office. Therefore, records generated in relation to its operation are not
exclusively retained by FSL. The Post Office has appointed other suppliers to manage aspects of the
system such as the network and end user computing towers. Further, the Post Office has insourced
various services previously provided by FSL and other suppliers engaged by the Post Office, including
help desk and service integration services.
Fujitsu
7th Floor, The Lantern, 75 Hampstead Road,
London, NW1 2PL
FUJ00243204
FUJ00243204
(oe)
FUJITSU
Based on the evidence which has been seen and heard in the Post Office Horizon IT Inquiry, FSL
considers that all of the matters mentioned above would need to be investigated carefully by the Post
Office and the police, with the assistance of an independent technical IT expert, and possibly also a
forensic accounting expert, to ascertain proper explanations for branch account discrepancies. FSL
considers that only after such an investigation has been undertaken could a meaningful expert witness
statement be made in subsequent criminal proceedings which addresses the reliability of the Horizon
system and the relevant data produced. For the reasons I have mentioned above, FSL cannot provide
such a statement.
As to your comments regarding the pursuit of shortfalls, FSL will continue to deliver its contractual
obligations including reporting promptly and transparently branch impacting incidents. It is for the Post
Office to work with postmasters to understand and resolve branch account discrepancies fairly and
promptly. The improvements you mention to your discrepancy investigation processes I hope will allow
for this to happen. You say in your letter that Horizon data is not currently being used for civil recoveries
from postmasters. This is reassuring. For the avoidance of doubt, FSL will not support the Post Office
in the event it pursues civil recoveries from postmasters.
As to your request for a meeting, I note that a meeting has been arranged between us at your Wood
Street offices on 18 July 2024. I look forward to seeing you then.
Yours sincerely,
Paul Patterson
CEO - Fujitsu Europe
Fujitsu
7th Floor, The Lantern, 75 Hampstead Road,
London, NW1 2PL