POL00060625
POL00060625
Witness: MRolfe
Statement: 1
Exhibits: MR 1
Date made: 03/07/13
IN THE MATTER OF THE SECOND SIGHT
INVESTIGATION OF HORIZON
CONFIDENTIAL AND LEGALLY PRIVILEGED
DRAFT
STATEMENT OF MARTIN ROLFE
1, MARTIN ROLFE, Senior Test Analyst of Post Office Limited, Lovelace Road, Bracknell, Berkshire,
RG12 8SN WILL SAY AS FOLLOWS:
1 I am Senior Test Analyst within the Post Office Limited (POL). I first joined POL in 1987 as a
counter clerk. I worked in various positions with POL but have been in my current role as Senior
Test Analyst for approximately 8 years.
2 Throughout my current role I have been based at the Bracknell offices (Bracknell) of Fujitsu,
which POL also occupied part of.. As part of my role I am responsible for testing and delivering
new projects and products before they are rolled out to post offices.
3 I make this statement in relation to the Horizon Spot Review 5 response. .In particular to
comment on the statement made by Mr Michael Rudkin concerning his visit to the Bracknell
site.
Save where otherwise appears, the facts set out within this witness statement are within my own
knowledge, as gained from my involvement with this matter. Where the matters set out below.
are not within my knowledge I have explained the source of my information or belief and believe
the same to be true. References to exhibits and page numbers within this witness statement are
references to documents exhibited at MR1 attached to this statement.
The use and set up at Bracknell
4 The basement room at Bracknell (Basement) was set up to create separate test environments.
The hardware and terminals were located in the Basement to provide a test location for
both
POL and Fujitsu, who provided support to POL for Horizon. The Basement was secure and
could only be accessed by authorised individuals.
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5 The main purpose of the Basement for POL was to provide a test environment to allow us to test
and troubleshoot any functional changes that were to be made to Horizon. This was also my
main role as Senior Text Analyst. The aim was to ensure that the changes would be successful
and proven before delivering them to the live environments in the branches. At the time of Mr
Rudkin's visit in August 2008 we were testing the Bureau Pre-Order Automation project.
6 The Basement provided a test environment. It was not possible to access live data at specific
branches from the Basement.
The Visit of Mr Rudkin
7 I do not specifically recall the visit of Mr Rudkin. I have conducted between 8 and 12 similar
visits with the purpose of showing any interested individuals the site and to show them what
testing we were doing at the time. This included subpostmasters but also other clients and
partners of POL.
8 Unfortunately I am not able to access my diary from that period but I have seen the email from
me dated 18 August 2008 to Mr Rudkin (a copy of which is exhibited at MR1) and consider that it
is likely I was the person who showed Mr Rudkin around on that day. It would be standard
procedure for visitors to be accompanied around the building and to the Basement.
9 I have seen the description of the Basement as provided by Mr Rudkin and it is reasonably
accurate. As I have mentioned above, I do not recall the visit and so cannot comment on
whether there were other people in the Basement at the time Mr Rudkin was shown in.
However, they could have been Fujitsu employees working on their test environments.
10 With a visit to Bracknell it would not have been unusual to provide a demonstration to the visitor.
We were testing the Bureau Pre-Order Automation project at the time. The terminals set up
within the Basement would have used Horizon programme and therefore this would have
appeared on the terminal screens.
1 There may be some confusion over what was meant by describing any of the test transactions
as being in “real time”. It would have been real time insofar as the test data being captured was
as it was entered on that date and time. However, this is did not reflect the transactions at a live
branch. This would not have been possible as the Basement was a test environment and was.
not connected to branches in anyway. The tests conducted would have generated its own data
and not used any from a branch, either current or historical.
12 I am also aware that Mr Rudkin alleges the person who accompanied him made comments
about a subpostmaster's account not balancing and then trying to make light of doing this. I take
these allegations very seriously. During any visit to Bracknell I would have remained
professional at all time and would certainly have never interfered with data at a branch, even if
there was the capability to do so.
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13 I have also seen that Mr Rudkin claims the Basement was referred to as the "covert operations"
room. During my time working at Bracknell. I have never heard the Basement referred to as this
nor would I ever refer to it by this name.
14 The programme that was being tested at the time would also not have generated any REMs.
This is used where there is a transfer of stock to or from head office. This was not relevant to
the current project and so there would not have been any test REMs generated.
Conclusion
15 Although I cannot specifically recall Mr Rudkin's visit to Bracknell I accept it is likely to have been
me that showed him around. However, with all due respect, Mr Rudkin is mistaken in believing
that the Basement was ever used to access, change or manipulate live.data at braches.
16 The Basement was a secure test environment to test and develop front facing programmes
within the Horizon system. There was no connection with the live data. Live data could not be
accessed.
I believe that the facts stated in this witness statement are true.
Signed:
MARTIN ROLFE
Dated:
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IN THE MATTER OF THE SECOND SIGHT
INVESTIGATION OF HORIZON
CONFIDENTIAL AND LEGALLY PRIVILEGED
DRAFT
STATEMENT OF MARTIN ROLFE
BOND DICKINSON LLP
Oceana House
39-49 Commercial Road
Southampton
$015 1GA
+44 (0)845 415 0000
DX 38517 Southampton
Ref:AP6.364065.531
Solicitors for Post Office Limited
4A_27078192_2
Witness:
Statement:
Exhibits:
Date made:
POL00060625
POL00060625
M Rolfe
1
MR 1
03/07/13
IN THE MATTER OF THE SECOND SIGHT
INVESTIGATION OF HORIZON
4A_27078192_2
EXHIBIT "MR1"
Witness:
Statement:
Exhibits:
Date made:
POL00060625
POL00060625
MRolfe
1
MR 1
03/07/13