POL00040012
POL00040012
e
148 Oid Street
LONDON
ECIV 9HO
For the attention of Mrs S Berlin
Criminal Case Review Commissian
5 St Philip's Place
Birmingham
B3 2PW
Date 24" July 2013
Dear Mrs Berlin
Horizon Computer System
I refer to your letter of 12 July 2013 which was addressed to Paula Vennells, Chief Executive of Post Office
Limited. I am responding on her behaif.
This letter briefly explains the background to the matters raised in your letter and the steps currently being
taken by Post Office Limited (POL). I anticipate being able to provide you with a more detailed response by
the end of this week.
At the centre of POL’s business is an IT systern known as Horizon. This system is used by over 11,000
subpostmasters to conduct transactions with members of the public on behalf of POL. As you will be
aware, POL has commissioned an independent firm of forensic accounts (called Second Sight) to
investigate and report on the integrity af the Horizon system. The aim of this report is to highlight any
issues in Horizon and its surrounding support infrastructure.
This month Second Sight released an interim report that highlighted a number of issues that required
further investigation but also reached the interim conclusion that there were no systemic problems with
Horizon.
We are now looking at Second Sight's findings in detail and are also investigating whether those findings
have an impact on any historic or on-going prosecutions, I hope to be able to send you a more
comprehensive response on these matters by the end of this week.
Yours sincerely
GRO I
Susan Crichton
General Counsel
www.postoffice.ceuk