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Witness Name: Anne Cox
Statement No.: WITNO7960100
Dated: 1 February 2023
POST OFFICE HORIZON IT INQUIRY
FIRST WITNESS STATEMENT OF ANNE COX
I, Anne Cox, will say as follows...
1. In 1995 I was employed at the Bridlington Branch Post Office as a counter clerk.
I had 6 weeks’ training in Leeds at the POL training department. My role included
working on the counter and covering for the branch manager when required.
2. 1 then progressed to managing the Bransholme branch Post Office. On the 9th
September 1999 I started 2 weeks’ training at the Jarvis Hotel in Leeds for my
role as a Horizon Field Support Officer [HFSO], where I started migrating offices
in our region. I completed the project in circa April 2001.
3. I then began my role as a Tier 2 team leader at the NBSC in Barnsley straight af-
ter finishing on Horizon - I completed my role as a Horizon Field Officer as the
role out was complete in my area. I received ITIL training and passed the exams
relating to call centre management. I then moved to “Problem Management”
within the NBSC, a role that involved looking at and trying to correct the issues
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raised by subpostmasters. I liaised between POL, Fujitsu and Royal Mail to find a
solution to the issues raised. In January 2004 I applied for voluntary redundancy and
left POL.
. The 2 weeks’ training in Leeds, beginning on the 9th September 1999, involved
being shown how to migrate the stock and cash onto the new Horizon system
and balance the migration. There were 8 of us to be trained by ex-army instruc-
tors. We then started to migrate Post Offices and were shadowed by one of the
members of the “Live Trial’ team, who stayed with us for several weeks. When I
began my role as Team Leader at the NBSC I went on several Management
courses and an ITIL course. I passed my exams relating to call centre manage-
ment.
I have been asked to describe my experience working as an HFSO. My
responsibilities as a HFSO were to arrive at the Post Office, introduce myself,
and give the subpostmaster an overview of the migration, training and how long
it would take. We received the paperwork a week in advance for the offices I was
due to migrate. Some offices closed at mid-day on a Wednesday for balancing
so I would always be there 1 hour before closing and wait for the Fujitsu
representative to arrive, and then for the sub postmaster to complete the
balance. Once I received the balance sheet I could migrate the stock and cash
onto the new Horizon system. On day 2, I would set up log- -in usemames for all
the staff and give them the training required to help them navigate the system.
Day 3 would be giving more training on “end of week” cut offs for the different
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reports, and how to send then to the correct agencies. When I arrived at the Post
Office designated to me I would wait for the Subpostmaster to complete his/her
balance. I would then migrate the stock and cash onto the Horizon system and
would stay to answer any questions. I would spend all day at the same branch
training and supporting the staff.
6. As a HFSO we would advise the subpostmaster to rely on the NBSC for help, and
if I felt that the office was not fully understanding the Horizon system, ! flagged it
up with the Horizon team back in Leeds to give them extra training.
7. As HFSOs we had a team leader and had regular “one-to-ones”, where we would
meet somewhere convenient to discuss our progress any issues we had.
8. I have been asked to describe my experiences working in the NBSC, including my
responsibilities and any projects I was involved in. At the NBSC I was re-
sponsible for a team of Tier 2 call handlers, who tried to resolve any calls that
could not be closed at Tier 1. Toreinforce the quality of their service I would listen
in to the calls to make sure they were giving the correct information to the
subpost- masters. I was responsible to my manager for the conduct and
professionalism of my team. In my role within Problem Management a problem
arose around the new benefits (purple) card issued by DWP, as subpostmasters
were completing and submitting the form incorrectly, which caused issues, so I
created a team of people who went out to these offices to give further training to
resolve these issues.
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9. The NBSC was created specifically to support subpostmasters to navigate the
new Horizon system. The ITIL process involved the call coming in from the
subpostmaster, answered by Tier 1 and looking for the answer on the
database . The database was created to use within the I.T.I.L. process by the
NBSC and it contained information to help Subpostmasters navigate the Horizon
system. If there was no solution, it was passed to Tier 2. If Tier 2 couldn't resolve
the issue, it was passed on to “Problem Management” who worked with all the
different agencies that used Horizon to find a fix. The agencies that involved in
finding a fix would be Fujitsu, ICL Pathway and the Post Office. It was then
passed to “Change Management’ to alter the database with the correct
information, so that if any other subpostmaster phoned the NBSC with the same
problem, it could be resolved at Tier 1 level. When the solution was found in
Problem Management, the solution was passed to Change Management to alter
the NBSC database. These were procedure type problems e.g. a
Subpostmaster would receive “special delivery” items that needed to be
delivered by 1pm from a postman that had had no response at the address. An
icon had to be created to enable the special delivery item to be scanned back
into the system. Once the solution had been added to the database, it was then
able to be resolved at Tier 1 level. I did have calls relating to Post Offices that
could not balance. On Tier 2, as I had been on Horizon project, I was passed the
call to try and help these people look for the misbalance.
10.1 have been asked what the most common types of calls I received were, and
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12.1 have been asked about the attitude of members of the NBSC to subpostmasters.
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how they were resolved. The most type of calls received related to balancing,
mainly to give help on producing “end of week” reports to DWP etc. I would call it
“hand holding” and giving reassurance that they were doing it correctly. It was
usually resolved within the ITIL process, but we had extra staff for balancing days
as we knew that the level of calls would increase on that day. We had the data-
base which was updated as the knowledge library grew. We also had a Horizon
terminal on Tier 2 so that we could help to understand the problem. We could
escalate system problems through to Fujitsu if we thought it was a system
problem or problems with the kit. With the ITIL process in place the problems
should have resolve themselves. In my opinion, the resources were there to
resolve the “day- to-day” problems that we incurred.
. In Tier 2 there were 6 teams of advisers and as team leaders we had a manager
with whom we had “one to one” meetings on a personal level. We had a Team
leaders meeting every week in which we discussed staff problems and any
issues that had come across in the calls that we thought were unusual or hard
to resolve. Our manager was extremely supportive and was always available to
talk to.
Overall, in my opinion, the advisers at the NBSC, particularly in my team, had a
good relationship with the majority of subpostmasters and treated them with the
utmost respect.
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13. During my time on Horizon several subpostmasters asked for extra training.
Whilst at the NBSC, we highlighted offices that were struggling and escalated
that to my managers, as well as to the area managers for that specific office.
I would highlight any further training that, in my opinion, was required in a
branch, I fed that information back to our support team in Leeds. It was then
their role to assign further training.
14. In my opinion, the majority of subpostmasters had adequate training. There were
a very few who due to their age or capacity to take on board the skills required to
operate the Horizon system, were struggling. In these cases, I flagged in writing
in my report that I completed for every office the problems that they were having.
15. In my opinion I delivered the training in a professional, friendly, approachable
manner. I had a 100% migration rate success and I considered myself to have
given the subpostmasters good training and good support.
16.When I was a HFSO I was also learning the system in detail and getting a depth
of knowledge that helped others. When I was at the NBSC I was aware of prob-
lems with the Horizon system that had been escalated to Fujitsu. They were
passed to Fujitsu for further investigation because we did not have the skill set to
resolve these issues. The problems that I came across were mainly equipment
failure, printers not working, screen freeze, having to re-boot the equipment, lack
of signal in some areas.
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17.My responsibilities were to look at and try to resolve issues raised on Tier 2
a. The type of problems included procedure errors such as when the new card
account was launched and a proportion of sub postmasters were sending in
application forms incorrectly filled in.
b. I would phone Fujitsu nearly every day to get an update on any problems
assigned to me that they were involved with.
c. When a problem was resolved then I would liaise with Change Management
and then it was their role to pass that information on to the NBSC.
18.1 am not aware of anything other than the points I have raised.
Statement of Truth
I believe the content of this statement to be true.
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