POL00001762
POL00001762
a
,
Priti Patel MP
House of Commons
LONDON
SW1A DAA
20 July 2010
Dear Ms Patel
i have been asked to reply to you directly on the Parliamentary Question that you recently raised as
follows;
‘To ask the Secretary of State for business, Innovation and Skills what his most recent estimate is
of the cost to postmasters and sub-postmasters of errors in the Horizon operating system: and if
he will make a statement.’
The Horizon computerised accounting system operates in around 12,000 Post Office® branches
and processes up to 750 transactions a second 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 maintained.
Over the years we have scrutinized many Harizon transaction records to establish where a
discrepancy in the branch accounting may have occurred. This takes place prior to notifying
subpostmasters that an error has been made at their branch, and asking them to make good the
loss. as per the terms and conditions of the Subpostmaster contract for services. Any
subpostmaster who is unhappy to accept a loss has the opportunity to provide evidence to support
why they believe that they are not responsible for it.
We do take the concems of individual subpostmasters extremely seriously and we do thoroughly
investigate matters when they are raised with us but there has been ne evidence found that shows
that the Horizon system has caused accounting errors.
lam satisfied that there is no evidence to doubt the integrity of the Horizon system and that it is
robust and fit for purpose.
! hope this information is helpful to you.
Yours. sincerely
GRO
David Smith
Managing Director
www.postoffice.co,uk
istered No, 2154540. Registered Office 148 Old Street, London, ECIV 9HQ.
Post Office Ltd is registered in England and Wales, Regi
rade masks of Post Office Ltd.
Post Office and the Post Office toga are register
F/684/1