POL00021864
POL00021864
Question
Reason for not providing an answer
Please provide full details of any instances in the last 3 years where Post Office, Bank of Ireland
Disproportionately wide requestfor general information, without identification of a
specific issue raised by Applicants.
4. or Wincor Nixdorf detected an attack against a branch ATM using either malware or hardware Note: suggestion that we use the above language throughout.
devices. Please describe the technical measures in place to prevent or detect this type of attack.
The latter part of the question has already been addressed in Post Office's paper
on ATMs.
In circumstances where the Bank of treland generates incorrect ATM cash dispensed figures for This question has already been addressed through correspondence with Second
4.4 both the branch's ATM and in the figures supplied directly to Post Office, please describe the :
. . Sight around Suspense Accounts
controls and procedures in place to detect and investigate this type of error
Any investigation in the last 3 years in which a technical fault was discovered with the ATM which . .
- “ Requesting general information on the occurrence of certain events, without
46a produced a shortage when balancing the ATM or a loss on the Horizon ATM stock unit. How was reference to it being raised by Applicants
the associated loss dealt with by Horizon? 8 'y API
Requesting general information on the occurrence of certain events, without
reference to it being raised by Applicants
ana ; There will have been hundreds if not thousands of queries raised with NBSC and
Any escalated investigation in the last 3 years relating to unresolved cash discrepancies involving 7 . a ‘ ; ,
4.6b a branch ATM FSC regarding ATM accounting. To collate this information would require a review
of all calls to NBSC and FSC regarding ATMs — this would be a massively
disproportionate exercise given that Second Sight has not identified the specific
issue it wishes to review.
Requesting general information on the occurrence of certain events, without
reference to it being raised by Applicants
4.6c Any instance in the last 3 years in which Post Office, Bank of Ireland or Wincor discovered that
" any of their authorised engineers or representatives had stolen cash from any branch ATM NOTE: Could we get POL and BO! to confirm that there have been no incidents
involving branches? POL security should know the answer to this.
Requesting general information on the occurrence of certain events, without
Any instance in the last 3 years in which Post Office initially determined that a cash loss was. reference to it being raised by Applicants
4.6d attributed to a Subpostmaster but where it was subsequently found that the Subpostmaster was
not responsible for the loss
Note: I think we could fudge the answer to this as follows:
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As explained to Second Sight previously, Subpostmasters can challenge any cash
loss or transaction correction in their branch in relation to ATMs. In many
circumstances the information needed to determine the cause of a discrepancy is
only held by a Subpostmaster. There will therefore have been occasions when a
transaction correction against a Subpostmaster has been challenged and reversed
~ this is however standard operating practice.
Any instance in the last 3 years in which Post Office, Bank of Ireland or Wincor became aware of
a customer receiving more cash than they were entitled to from an ATM. Please also provide full
This question has already been largely answered in POL's paper to Second Sight on
ATMs which explains the processes used to detect, and protect branch's from,
third party fraud. The requestfor general information on the occurrence of certain
4.6f details of how the resultant cash shortfall was dealt with in the branch's ATM/Horizon balancing events, without identification of a specific issue raised by Applicants is
process and whether any Subpostmaster was held accountable for losses that were later found _I disproportionate. Post Office would be happy to provide more detailed
to be attributable mechanical problems with an ATM; information on any specific example put forward by Second Sight.
Any instance in the last 3 years in which Post Office, Bank of Ireland or Wincor has become aware I Requesting general information on the occurrence of certain events, without
46h of any theft relating to an ATM, that was carried out (or suspected of having been carried out) by I reference to it being raised by Applicants
any person other than a Subpostmaster or a branch employee. Please also describe the
accounting treatment of any associated loss Note: again Rob King may be able to answer this.
Requesting general information on the occurrence of certain events, without
Please provide full details of any instance in the last 3 years in which any Post Office or Camelot reference to it being raised by Applicants
5.1 employee or representative has been found to have stolen Scratchcards or any other Lottery
products/prizes. Note: again Rob King may be able to answer this.
Prior to the changes made to Standard operating Procedures in February 2010, and the
subsequent implementation of ‘Ping’ in February 2012, did Post Office find that many branches
55 were making similar mistakes in regard to processing Scratchcards? Please provide full details of I Requesting general information on the occurrence of certain events, without
the types of mistakes that were routinely being made. Please also provide a schedule showing for I reference to it being raised by Applicants
each month, how many TCs were issued and of what aggregate value (separating TC Invoices
from TC Credits) during the years 2005 - 2011 in respect of Lottery matters?
This matter has already been addressed in Spot Review 5 and also subsequently in
Allegations have been made about unauthorised access to transaction data by staff located at the Post Office Investigation Report for the Applicant whose case Second Sight
6.3 the Fujitsu office in Bracknell. As previously requested and agreed, please provide the email reviewed in Spot Review 5. Second Sight were also sent previously a draft witness
archives in PST or NSF format for Post Office staff working in Bracknell during 2008.
statement from a Post Office employee which made it clear that there was no
capability to access or alter live branch data
Please provide us with a schedule listing all TC’s issued to branches in the last 12 months relating
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Requesting general information on the occurrence of certain events, without
73 to this type of adjustment. reference to it being raised by Applicants
Please provide us with a schedule listing all amounts received back from any bank, in response to . . . . ,
74 that reconciliation process in the last 12 months, clearly describing the accounting treatment of _I Reauesting general information on the occurrence of certain events, without
reference to it being raised by Applicants
those amounts
We are aware that in some circumstances a customer may benefit from a duplicated transaction.
75 Please provide full details for any such instances that have been occurred in the last 3 years and This question has already been addressed through correspondence with regards to
state whether any Subpostmaster was held accountable (during any period beyond the end ofa _I ‘One Sided Transactions’
Trading Period) and required to make good the resultant shortfall
7.6 Please provide details of the anticipated cost savings associated with this process change
(second _I together with the estimates of increased financial risk i.e. the cost benefit analysis carried out by I Requesting general information, without reference to it being raised by Applicants
Sentence) I Post Office.
Please provide us with a schedule showing the monthly volumes (and the aggregate values) of
77 EN/TC Invoices compared to Credits that were issued to branches, in regard to Giro payments Requesting general information, without reference to it being raised by Applicants
and Girobank Deposits and Withdrawals, in the years 1999 - 2013
We are aware that if the root cause of a lost cheque is unknown or attributed to some other Already answered — Post Office has already explained to Second Sight that lost
cause outside the branch, Post Office will absorb this loss and not pass it on to the cheques cannot be the cause of loss to a branch unless it can be shown that the
TAL Subpostmaster. Please provide monthly totals showing the aggregate of all such losses in the branch is at fault. As Second Sight accepts this explanation, this request is
years 1999 - 2013, describing how much of that loss was absorbed by Post Office and how much _I disproportionate.
was passed on to Subpostmasters
We are aware that processing or technical failures can occasionally give rise to ‘one-sided’ . . .
7.13 transactions. We are also aware that Post Office has stated that ‘in any event a branch will never cated Provided responses to the two examples Second Sight previously
be liable for an error caused by a ‘one-sided’ transaction’
Out of scope
ita Any surveys or other quality control procedures in order to measure user satisfaction with regard
to the NBSC and HSD Helplines Note: we may be able to answer this one.
Requesting general information, without reference to it being raised by Applicants
Please provide full details as to the consequences of introducing ‘Monthly Trading' periods. For
11.8 example, did Post Office notice an increase in the number of branches suffering discrepancies Note: we would need to check but I think we could probably answer this by saying:
that led to contract termination? “From our enquiries, we do not believe that POL holds this information."
We understand that when Post Office moved to Monthly Trading, Branch Suspense Accounts
ts thereafter had to be closed out to zero at the end of each Trading Period. Please provide full This is anewered in Section 9 of Second Sight’s Part 1 Briefing
details of options available to a Subpostmaster dealing with the investigation of a loss just before
the end of a Trading Period.
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12.1a Any insurance coverage Post Office has ever offered to arrange for its Subpostmasters Out of scope
We understand that many Subpostmasters have only signed the one-page ‘Acknowledgement of
22 Appointment’ Letter and not necessarily been provided with a copy of the Contract. Please Out of scope
° describe the basis upon which Post Office considers the Contract enforceable in these
circumstances?
We understand that Post Office considers the terms of the Contract to be broadly similar to
12.3 those used in franchising arrangements across the UK. Please provide full details evidencing this I Out of scope
proposition?
Several Applicants have reported their concerns that Post Office employees acted
inappropriately in connection with the closure of transfer of their branches. The inference of the
majority of the remarks made is that certain Post Office employees acted unprofessionally, either
12.5 Out of scope
by leaking confidential information (that was damaging to the Applicants) to potential buyers
and/or by thwarting their efforts to sell a viable branch until it was no longer viable (and
consequently of lower value).
The further inference is that certain Post Office employees seemed to be in some way motivated
12.6 or incentivised to find reasons to close branches, that were already destined to close under the Out of scope
various closure and re-invention programmes, without cost to Post Office
12.7 Please provide full details of the work performed to refute these ‘bad faith’ allegations Out of scope
Requesting general information on the occurrence of certain events, without
reference to it being raised by Applicants
Please provide full details of any criticism of Post Office’s (or Royal Mail's) investigative actions or I Note: ! think we can answer this because there are no judgments in criminal cases
13.1 of its employees in any Court judgement or ruling and there are only very few written judgments in civil cases. Paul — can you check
with Rodric to see if he is aware of any criticism of this nature being levied at POL.
If not, we could answer this as follows:
“We are not aware of any such criticism".
Requesting general information on the occurrence of certain events, without
reference to it being raised by Applicants
Please provide a schedule showing the number of requests from Subpostmasters for assistance Note: Possible alternative wording:
13.2 in investigating discrepancies their branch's accounts for each of the years 1999 — 2013. Please
also show for each year the number of requests when assistance was provided
Post Office does not hold this information. To undertake this exercise would
require POL to review 14 years of calls to NBSC and HSD which would amount to
millions of calls. This request is clearly disproportionate.
Please provide a schedule showing the number of investigations into branch surpluses or
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Requesting general information on the occurrence of certain events, without
reference to it being raised by Applicants
13.3 shortfalls for each of the years 1999 — 2013 clearly setting out the number of investigations in
each category See answer to question 13.2
In relation to requests for assistance, we understand that, where several instances of the same
problem occurs, a ‘problem record’ is created and the root cause of the issue is identified and
13.4 fixed (i.e. to avoid further instances). Please provide a schedule of all significant ‘problem Requesting general information on the occurrence of certain events, without
“ records’ and all process and software modifications (excluding "minor amendments to reference to it being raised by Applicants
processes") that have been implemented, in the years 1999 - 2013, that were designed to reduce
the frequency and impact of “errors made at the counter
135 Please provide full details and results of any user satisfaction surveys Post Office has conducted Requesting general information on the occurrence of certain events, without
. into the Horizon system reference to it being raised by Applicants
We understand that many of the unexplained branch losses are attributed to "errors made at the
. " Post Office does not hold this information.
13.6 counter", Please provide a schedule showing the number and value of unexplained branch losses
° or “errors made at the counter" for each month for the period 2008 to 2013. Please also provide . A .
oe 5 . . 5 Note: As far as I am aware, POL does not categorise losses in this manner.
similar information relating to Crown Branches including the amounts written off each month
Please provide a schedule showing the number and value of ENs and TCs issued to branches for
Requesting general information on the occurrence of certain events, without
13.7 each of the years 1999 to 2013 (we need to see separate volumes and values for Credits and ve oe .
reference to it being raised by Applicants
Invoices).
Requesting general information on the occurrence of certain events, without
reference to it being raised by Applicants.
Please provide full details of changes to the Horizon system and/or to its Standard Operating
13s Procedures that were designed to reduce the risk, incidence and severity of errors and fraud, asa I This would require a complete review of every technical change to Horizon over a
. direct result of investigations carried out into unexplained branch shortfalls, or in response to 14 year period of which there will have been thousands Putting aside the fact that
problems, vulnerabilities and susceptibility to errors or fraud, for the years 1999 — 2013 Second Sight does not have the technical expertise to analyse this data, this
request is clearly disproportionate.
Please provide full details of all Suspense Accounts held by Post Office. Please also provide a
15.1 schedule, for each year end between 2008 and 2013, showing the amounts transferred to Post Note: we have this information so should be able to answer this.
Office’s Profit and Loss Account (both debits and credits) for each Suspense Account held
152 Please also provide a schedule, for each year end between 2008 and 2013, showing the balance _ I Requesting general information on the occurrence of certain events, without
held on each Suspense Account (both credits and debits).
reference to it being raised by Applicants
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Please provide an electronic report in CSV format or similar showing for the last 3 years the
Requesting general information on the occurrence of certain events, without
i following information for every item posted to any Suspense Account: Full Transaction details reference to it being raised by Applicants
1s3b Please provide an electronic report in CSV format or similar showing for the last 3 years the Requesting general information on the occurrence of certain events, without
° following information for every item posted to any Suspense Account: Originator's reference reference to it being raised by Applicants
Please provide an electronic report in CSV format or similar showing for the last 3 years the . .
ie ~ . Requesting general information on the occurrence of certain events, without
15.3c following information for every item posted to any Suspense Account: Any comments or notes enerarinre
. . reference to it being raised by Applicants
associated with the transaction
Please provide an electronic report in CSV format or similar showing for the last 3 years the Requesting general information on the occurrence of certain events, without
15.3d following information for every item posted to any Suspense Account: d) Full account details of q 8 Bi "
the account the transaction relates to or is being transferred to
reference to it being raised by Applicants