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Witness Name: Benjamin Cane
Statement No.: WITN07700100
Dated: 3rd February 2023
POST OFFICE HORIZON IT INQUIRY
FIRST STATEMENT OF BENJAMIN RICHARD CANE
I, Benjamin Cane, will say as follows..
INTRODUCTION
1. I have been asked to supply a witness statement to the Post Office Horizon IT
Inquiry because of my former role as Horizon Field Support Manager. I no
longer work for the Post Office but set out my professional background below,
beginning with my current employment.
2. Since leaving the Post Office in January 2004 I have worked in the Affordable
Housing sector, specifically in housing development. These roles have mostly
been with not for profit Housing Associations, aside from my current role which
is a‘ for profit’ subsidiary of Legal & General Capital:
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2.1 Feb 2019 to present: Head of Development at Legal & General Affordable
Homes
2.2 July 2012 to Jan 2019: Head of Development at The Guinness Partnership
2.3 Feb 2004 to July 2012: Various roles with Mendip Housing (which merged
with Aster Group) including Head of Development, Senior Project Manager,
Project Manager
. The following roles were all for Post Office, whether that was Post Office
Counters Ltd, Post Office Ltd, Royal Mail or Consignia, I can’ t be certain of the
exact company details for each role.
. Circa Feb 2002 to Feb 2004: Implementation Project Manager as part of
Network Transformation Team — Post Office Ltd. This role related to physical
changes to sub Post Offices; closure of offices (for example in rural areas where
the service level had declined), opening new ones, relocation of offices (say
from a village store to another retailer in the village), and refurbishment of
existing offices. Work included the project management for the logistics of
moving Horizon equipment, safes, counter screens, arranging for cash/stock to
be collected securely during these changes and alarm installation as well as
new signage, etc.
. Circa mid 1999 — Feb 2002: Horizon Field Support Manager (HFSM), Post
Office Ltd. The detail of this role is outlined in the ‘ background’ section below.
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6. Nov 1997 — mid 1999: Helpline Manager, South West, Post Office Ltd. This role
was as the Manager for the internal and external customer helpline based in
the Bristol office. I managed a team of around 25 Helpline staff whose role it
was to answer incoming calls from the public or from sub-postmasters or PO
counter staff relating to transactional queries (how to do a certain transaction)
or complaints from the public. The regional helplines were all closed down over
a period of time and the calls all went to a Call Centre based in the North East.
7. 1995 — Nov 1997: Retail Network Manager, POCL. I ‘ managed’ up to 100+ s
Post Offices across various areas in and around South West Herts and into
West/North London. These areas changed regularly so I can’ t be exact. The
role was to make visits to Sub-Post Offices, review the secure environment
(checking safety measures like parcel screens were closed or secure area door
was closed), encouraging the SPMR to keep the retail area tidy, keep the up to
date leaflets/info up to date, clean the signage and so on. It was really a support
role for the SPMRs. There were times we were asked to encourage them to sell
more, upsell etc. Also to encourage them to invest in the latest retail signage
(from red to green to red!), support them if they had a break in or robbery,
arrange for training on new products.
8. 1989 — 1995: Counter clerk, assistant Branch Manager, Branch Manager.
POCL. I joined POCL as a counter clerk at Borehamwood Post Office and over
the 6 years in this operational role I worked in many Post Offices across South
West Hertfordshire, West London and Central London. My last operational role
as Branch Manager was at Kings Cross Post Office.
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9. 1988 -— 1989: Postman at Borehamwood Delivery Office. Royal Mail.
BACKGROUND
10.My role as HFSM was brief and only came to an end as the implementation
phase of the Horizon rollout came to an end; there were no more rollouts as
part of the overall programme. I worked out of the South West office in Aztec
West, Bristol. I was one of 3 HFSMs covering the South West and the Midlands.
I had between 15-20 HFSOs in my team and I had line management
responsibility for them.
Training
11.1 don’ t recall the specific dates/times or length of the training but as part of the
Implementation Project start up, there were many sessions as a wider South
West/Midlands team covering everything from admin (how and what to claim
for expenses, ordering/arranging hire cars for work business) to sessions on
the Horizon system itself. I do recall there being ‘ Train the Trainer’ sessions so
we as Horizon Field Support team were able to coach the trainees (be it SPMR
or PO Counter Clerks).
HFSM experience
12.My responsibilities as HFSM were primarily to line manage the HFSO team. An
average day might begin in the Bristol office for a team meeting, processing
travel expenses (the team were away for much of their working week and
generated many receipts for hotels/subsistence claims), travelling to site to do
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a Horizon implementation to support a HFSO, or even doing an implementation
with a SPMR myself.
13. There was a lot of travel involved — I was regularly travelling to places 3 or 4
hours drive from home. My team lived across the South West and South Wales
area and were almost always required to stay overnight 3 times week.
Supporting them with 1:1s, coaching and any supplementary training was the
bulk of my role.
14.When I did an actual implementation of the Horizon system, which was mostly
within the Sub Post Office network, although sometimes we were required to
work in bigger teams in bigger Branch (Crown) offices, the day which was
usually Wednesday (I think sometimes we did 2 offices a week) balance day
would be travel from home or hotel to site, introductions with the SPMR, check
all infrastructure was in place (i.e. was the Horizon kit there and working),
getting the SPMR set up on the system. Once the PO was closed, and the
SPMR balanced their last time manually, we would check the balance sheet to
make sure it balanced and that the sheet was correctly completed (i.e. columns
added up and the summaries matched the final balancing figure) then we would
‘ migrate’ the balance sheet figures onto the Horizon system and from memory
there were print outs the SPMR was asked to check and sign to say they agreed
with the figures.
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15.The next 2 days were spent supporting the SPMR in the live environment and
then there was a return visit the following week to support them with their first
Horizon balance.
16.In my time as HFSM I don’ t recall any specific requests for support other than
what they were all given. If there were requests they were directed to the
Program Manager who I think sometimes arranged for remedial support but the
programme and site visits were planned well in advance and there weren’ t
many HFSOs available or spare to offer additional help.
17. There was a Programme Manager based in the Bristol office who had a small
team managing the HFSO timetable and who went to what office, etc. I believe
this team would have been the support available.
18.The HFSOs were managed by a HFSM with the support of the Programme
Manager. Based in Bristol but travelled from home or hotels. Regular 1:1s on
site or in the Bristol office, regular training or briefing on latest operational
changes.
SPMR training
19.In my view the SPMR were given adequate training for the system. Some
needed more coaching, others took to it very quickly and minimal support was
given. In my experience, most HFSOs gave the SPMR their mobile number and
they had an additional, informal route for support.
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20. The first migrations the team did were all new experiences for us all but as we
got busier and did more, the level of support and knowledge of the system
became really good between us, and we felt like we could answer all of the
queries and issues which came up from the SPMRs.
Awareness of defects/bugs
21.In my time as HFSM, I wasn’ t aware of any bugs/defects/errors with the Horizon
system.
22. There is nothing else I would like to add or make the Chair aware of.
Statement of Truth
I believe the content of this statement to be true.
Dated: 03/02/2023
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