Witness Name: Paul Holland
‘Statement No.: WITN04930100
Dated:
POST OFFICE HORIZON IT INQUIRY
FIRST WITNESS STATEMENT OF PAUL HOLLAND
1, Paul Holland, will say as follows...
Background
1. This witness statement is made to assist the Post Office Horizon IT Inquiry (the
“Inquiry”) with the matters set out in the Rule 9 Request dated 11 October
2022.
2. Iwas employed by Post Office Ltd between 1985 and 2018. I started my
employment as a Counter Clerk in a Crown Post Office. After two years I
became an Auditor and remained as such until the Auditor and Trainer roles
were amalgamated in 2008 to become a Field Support Advisor.
3. The Field Support Advisor was a dual role which incorporated both auditing and
training duties. I continued in this role until 2014 when I had a very brief
‘secondment to the Horizon Mediation Investigation Team for a few months
before becoming a temporary Crown Post Office Branch Manager.
4. At the start of 2015 I returned to my permanent Field Support Advisor role
before becoming a Sales Capability Manager later in that year. I remained in
that role until I took voluntary redundancy in 2018.
5. As an Auditor I gained experience in using the Horizon system from its inception
particularly the back office and balancing processes. As a Field Support
office, transactional side of the system.
Training to be a trainer
6. As far as I can recall, the training I received towards becoming a trainer in 2008
consisted of the equivalent of training a new Counter Clerk in the classroom to
ensure that I was conversant with transactional and balancing processes. I
believe this consisted of around five days using dummy, off4ine Horizon
Equipment.
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7. This was followed up by shadowing an existing trainer, whilst training a new
subpostmaster on-site in a Post Office branch for a week.
8. Training on presenting in the classroom consisted of shadowing an existing
classroom trainer for a period of a week.
Training delivery.
9. The training of new subpostmasters consisted of two elements, classroom
Classroom
10. As far as I can recall, the basic classroom training lasted five days which was
extended by a further three days, dependent on the type of branch the
subpostmasters would be managing (i.e., if the branch transacted passport
applications and/or car tax transactions).
11. It was designed to be an interactive course using off-line Horizon terminals
with each trainee being responsible for an individual stock unit containing a
limited amount of dummy cash and stock. This was delivered by the trainer
using PowerPoint presentations prepared by the training team and supported
by a schedule and a workbook to ensure conformity of delivery.
12. As far as I can recall the first two days of training were spent covering security,
health and safety, data protection and business awareness (i.e., the
background of Post Office and compliance).
13. The training then moved on to practical transactions using the dummy Horizon
transactions and swipe cards and the reversal of such transactions. Trainees
were shown how to obtain transaction logs in order to identify transactions and
their related reference numbers. They were given hand-outs detailing the
processes that they could refer to when in situ at their branch.
14_A large proportion of the course was given over to instruction on how to
process mail items including size, speed, insurance, mail segregation, inland
and overseas mail. This training also included conversations regarding
upselling of products to increase the subpostmaster’s potential earnings.
15. At the end of each day where dummy transactions had taken place, trainees
were guided through process of producing daily transaction reports and
dispatch processes for paper-based transactions. They were instructed on how
to count and declare the cash in their stock unit and how to identify any
on the Horizon system. This was supported by ‘End of Day’ handouts which
the trainees kept for use in their own branches.
16. As I recall, during the classroom training, two half days were dedicated to
undertaking two full stock unit balances.
17. The trainees were guided through obtaining a balance snapshot in order to
physically check the very limited dummy cash and stock within their stock unit
and identify any discrepancies. If there were any discrepancies between what
had been physically counted and the snapshot, the trainees were instructed on
how to amend the Horizon system to reflect the actual amount of cash and
stock on hand.
18. The final act of the balancing process was to produce the necessary weekly
reports and to produce a trial balance which would report the total discrepancy
in the stock unit. Provided no further changes were required, the trainees were
then shown how to roll over into the next balancing period or trading period,
where appropriate, and produce the final balance. Again, this was supported
by ‘Balancing and End of Week’ handouts.
19. General feedback from the trainees completing feedback forms was that there
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was an awful lot of information to take in and most would have preferred longer
using the dummy Horizon equipment to cary out a broader range of
transactions within the ‘safe’ environment of the classroom.
On-site training
20. Following the classroom training, new subpostmasters were supported by a
trainer for the first week in their Post Office branch. The gap between this and
the classroom training varied depending on the availability of trainers and was
usually kept to a minimum, however, on occasions, depending on
circumstances, such as complications in exchange of contracts for example,
could amount to months.
21. On-site training was frequently challenging for new subpostmasters as often
they would be moving into the premises at the same time if it was a residential
branch. They would also often have to learn how to run the retail side of the
business, along with visits to the cash and carry in order to replenish stock on
the retail side of the business. It was a challenge to maintain their full attention
during the early days of training.
22. The on-site training consisted of supporting the new subpostmaster while they
served customers. It was very much a ‘hands off approach, allowing them to
use the Horizon system by themselves and stepping in to guide them when
needed.
‘they were given during the classroom training to produce the end of day
reports and to physically count the cash on hand in order to make the cash
declaration. Where a discrepancy was highlighted by the Horizon system once
the cash had been declared the subpostmaster was guided through the
process of identifying it.
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23. At the end of the day the subpostmaster was encouraged to use the handouts I
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24. A full re-check of the cash was firstly undertaken with addition checked on any I
discrepancy, but where this was not the case the subpostmaster was guided
through obtaining a transaction log in order to assist with identifying any
transactional errors, such as transposition of figures which could be identified
despatched.
25. This became more difficult in later years as most transactions became
automated either by swiping a card or scanning a barcode resulting in no
26. During the week's on-site training a full physical balance of cash and stock
was undertaken by the subpostmaster, guided by the trainer. As with the end of
day procedures, the subpostmaster was encouraged to follow the ‘Balancing
and End of Week’ handouts given to them during the classroom training.
27. The subpostmaster was guided through producing a balance snapshot from
the Horizon system and physically checking the cash and stock on hand to the
system derived figures. Any discrepancies were verified by re-checking the
relevant cash or stock. If stock figures were different, once the discrepancies
had been verified, the subpostmaster was then guided through how to amend
the relevant totals on the Horizon system to reflect the actual amounts on
hand.
28. The last action of the balancing process was to declare the cash. Any
discrepancies would be verified by the subpostmaster re-checking the cash on
hand along with any manual documentation used to prepare the cash
declaration. Once again, the subpostmaster would be guided through obtaining
a transaction log to assist in identifying any discrepancy.
29. Once all totals had been verified, the handouts were used to guide the
‘subpostmaster through the balancing process on the Horizon system,
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culminating in the final balance being produced and rolling over into the next
balancing or trading period where appropriate.
30. The balance following the week's on-site training was also attended by a
trainer and involved the process as described above.
31. The length of time spent on training the balancing process varied depending
‘on the size of the branch, whether it had individual stock units and the types of
transactions processed. Typically, on average I would say that half a day would
be spent on balancing.
32. The time spent on how to identify the cause of discrepancies also varied
depending on whether any discrepancies occurred at the time of the balance,
in which case as long as necessary was spent on identifying the discrepancy.
This could amount to several hours in some cases.
33. Where no discrepancies were revealed during the balance, the subpostmaster
was still guided through the checking process and instructed in producing a
transaction log in order to identify transactions and assist with identifying
discrepancies. I would say that this typically would have taken around an hour.
34. Once the on-site training had been completed, trainers were told by
management not to leave their work's mobile telephone number with the
subpostmaster as they should be encouraged to use the Post Office Helpline
for any enquiries.
Conclusion
35. During my time training new subpostmasters I was not aware of any bugs,
defects or errors In the Horizon IT system. Had I been aware of any I would not
have been comfortable in continuing with the training role unless the bugs,
defects or errors had been resolved.
The classroom training was undertaken to a very tight timescale and often felt
rushed particularly if there were one or two trainees who were struggling and
needed extra attention. This often resulted in falling behind the timetable and
resulting in having to ‘catch up’.
37.1 also feel that too much emphasis was placed on training new subpostmasters
to have sales conversations with customers when more emphasis was needed
in the mechanics of the transactions.
38. As previously mentioned, trainees often indicated on feedback forms that they
felt that they had been bombarded with information during the classroom
training and would've appreciated more time using the dummy Horizon
terminals.
39. I also feel that given the distractions of a new subpostmaster taking up post
(ie., often moving in where it was a residential Post Office and having to lea
how to run their retail business) that a week's training support was not really
long enough to ensure that they were competently running the Post Office.
‘Statement of Truth
I believe the géntent of this statement to be true.
w GRO ce 2m