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DOCUMENT - 17
DRAFT — IN STRICTEST CONFIDENCE AND SUBJECT TO LEGAL PRIVILEGE
GLO COMMUNICATIONS — HORIZON ISSUES JUDGMENT
COMMERCIAL PARTNERS RETAIL - EMAIL
SUBJECT: POST OFFICE GROUP LITIGATION UPDATE
As you may have seen, the second Judgment in the Post Office Group Litigation has been
handed down by the High Court today, as part of the preliminary stages of the complex,
long-running legal case to resolve a number of individual claims by mainly former
postmasters.
This Judgment, which focuses on our Horizon computer system used across our network,
raises some issues [and criticisms] so I wanted to reassure you of the firm measures we
[have taken/ are taking] which address these.
But firstly I want to underline why we can have confidence in the overall robustness of the
Horizon system and that it compares well with systems used by other retail and financial
services companies each day. Both independent experts, for Post Office and the claimants
in the case, on opposite sides of the litigation, confirmed this. . It’s also important to make
clear that the products and services that Post Offices provide every day to millions of
customers are not affected by the litigation.
The vast majority of our 11,500 Post Office branches operate without problems and Horizon
processes around 47 million transactions a week, more than £60 billion worth a year. These
are reconciled with the systems of our many clients, including high street banks, utility
companies and Government departments.
Of course no system can ever be said to be perfect and we’re working to make continual
improvements. Working with our Horizon supplier, Fujitsu, we have taken actions which
include strengthening the ways the system is monitored and issues identified and fixed
when they do arise. We’re also implementing some design changes to further reduce the
likelihood of human errors. Overall more than [100?] changes are being made ina
comprehensive programme of improvements, closely involving our postmasters.
What the Judgment underlines to us most strongly is the importance of better supporting
our postmasters to operate their branches. Actions we’re taking on this will both help
prevent problems in the first place and improve the support we provide to postmasters
when they do have issues.
Over the past 12-18 months we have had a particular focus on making changes at every
level of the business to build a better partnership with our postmasters. These include very
improvements to recruitment, training and operational support.
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I hope I have reassured you about how we are responding to the matters the litigation
raises — if you would like any more detail about the considerable improvement work
underway then I will be very happy to provide this. I also attach our response to the media
about today’s Judgment which I hope is helpful.
[As you know from our recent conversations about the litigation itself] we expect the case
to take some time to be resolved as there are many legal matters still to be determined and
the individual claims themselves span a very lengthy period, with some dating back around
two decades. Currently there are Court hearings scheduled through to 2020 and I will keep
you updated on relevant developments.
Again, please contact me at any time with any concerns you may have.