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city POST CFFICE LTD.
22 DEC 2011
HOUSE OF COMMONS I MANAGING ikECTOR'S OFFICE
Paula Vennells, LONDON SWI1A 0AA
Managing Director, ev BA
Post Office Limited,
148 Old Street,
LONDON
ECV 9HQ. 21* December 2011.
Dear Ms Vennells,
Horizon System.
I refer to your letter in response to my parliamentary questions on the above and
note what you say. Unfortunately in the course of your lengthly response you do not
give specific answers to the questions which I raised.
In response to my question:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills (1) how many (a)
prosecutions and (b)investigations of postmasters instigated by Post Office Ltd as a
result of apparent financial irregularities on the Horizon computer system have
subsequently been abandoned; [77794]
You say that “no cases have been abandoned for reason of any doubt about that
system”. That was not what I asked. My question was to ascertain how may
prosecutions or investigations had arisen because discrepancies had been found on
the Horizon system, and how many of these were subsequently not followed through
for whatever reason.
Iam that Post Office limited would have such figures and I would be obliged if you
would let me have them.
In response to my question:
(2) how many complaints Post Office Ltd has received from subpostmasters
concerning difficulties with the Horizon computer system in each of the last five
years; [77795] i
Member of Parliament for Angus ;
16 Brothock Bridge H
ARBROATH DD11 1NG
Email mike.weir.mI
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again no actual figures are given. Whilst I note what you say about various avenues
of complaint I would have thought that any organisation installing such a vast, and
expensive, system would keep a clear log of complaints and difficulties that sub
postmasters experience, if for no other reason to ascertain whether there are any
patterns of difficulty that need to be addressed. Surely your IT department, or
installer would have such records? Again I would like the figures and nature of the
complaints. That information would also answer my specific question on operational
faults since, yet again, no real information has been given on this.
I note the points that you make regarding the “letters before action” from
Shoosmiths, which presumably are part of English legal proceedings but I did not
ask about legal action merely about the nature and frequency of complaints about
the system.
However, on consideration, I would now ask in addition for details of how much Post
Office limited has spent to date on legal costs and external technical advice in
relation to proceedings where a subpostmaster has made allegations against the
Horizon system.
T look forward to hearing from you with the information requested.
MIKE WEIR MP
Member of Parliament for Angus
16 Brothock Bridge
ARBROATH DD11 1NG
Tel ¢
Email mike.weir.mpi
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