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Written question asked by Lord Birt (Crossbench) on Tuesday, 30 June 2020, in the House of Lords. It was due for an answer on Tuesday, 14 July 2020. It was answered by Lord Callanan (Conservative) on Tuesday, 14 July 2020 on behalf of the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy.

Horizon IT System: Civil Proceedings

Question

To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Callanan on 23 June (HL5752), in what ways, if at all, the Horizon judgments considered the extent to which individuals were responsible for the failings of the Post Office

Answer

The Horizon Judgments did not attribute individual responsibility for the system failings. The Judgment on the first "Common Issues" trial, concerned the terms and interpretation of the contract between postmasters and Post Office, and the second "Horizon Issues" trial, concerned the function and reliability of the Horizon Point of Sale system.

The findings outlined throughout the Horizon judgments provided an extensive insight as to what went wrong at the Post Office, including an independent judicial view of the facts all sides were looking for. The Post Office has accepted that, in the past, it got things wrong in its dealings with a number of postmasters. Under the leadership of its new CEO, the Post Office is now committed to applying the lessons learnt from the litigation to build and strengthen the relationship with postmasters.

The Judge when handing down the Horizon Issues Judgment raised concerns in relation to the evidence provided by Fujitsu employees. He has referred these cases to the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP).

Secondary information

Type
Written question
Reference
HL6290
Session
2019-21
Related items
Post Office Horizon IT Inquiry
Tuesday, 23 June 2020
Written questions
House of Lords
Subjects
Civil proceedings Horizon IT system
Link
View this Written question on www.parliament.uk