Horizon (IT system)

Horizon is the name for a computer system used by part of the United Kingdom's postal service, Post Office Ltd. It has come under criticism since at least 2013 for errors in the system which, according to press reports, may have caused the loss of dozens of jobs, unnecessary prison sentences, bankruptcies and one documented suicide.[1] The system is used by at least 11,500 branches, and processes six million transactions every day.[2]

Purpose and design

The system cost £1 billion, and was designed by ICL/Fujitsu Services.[3][4] According to Post Office Ltd, the name Horizon encompasses:

Horizon was born almost six years ago, at a party conference. The then social security minister Peter Lilley brandished a smartcard, a fraud-busting replacement for the benefit book. With the Benefits Agency and ICL, the Post Office would install smartcard reading terminals at every branch, through a private finance initiative (PFI) called Pathway.

The system was originally planned in 1996 as a joint endeavour (known as Pathway, although the official name was BA/BOCL) between the Department of Social Security and Post Office Ltd, with the work being done by ICL Pathway.[6] ICL later became part of Fujitsu. In 2000, the Department of Social Security withdrew from the deal, leaving ICL/Fujitsu to run the system.

Four years and £700m of taxpayers' money later, the new Labour government stopped Pathway in its tracks. ICL has since criticised the PFI payment criteria: the Fujitsu-owned firm would have been paid partly on how many customers post offices attracted. "Looking back, I think it was over-ambitious," says Stuart Sweetman, group managing director of customer and banking services for Consignia, the new name for the Post Office. "You can't export all the risk to a supplier."

Problems

Initial Post Office Ltd investigation

An initial investigation failed, at first, to find the cause of the problems. As a result, an independent investigative firm Second Sight were brought in to conduct a separate, independent inquiry.[2]

Second Sight report

In July 2013, Post Office Ltd admitted (after an interim review by Second Sight), that software defects with Horizon had indeed occurred, but that the system was effective.[2] The review discovered problems in 2011 and 2012, when Post Office Ltd discovered defects which had caused a shortfall of up to £9,000 at 76 Post Office branches.[2] However, more than 150 sub-postmasters continued to raise issues with the system, which they claimed had, by error, put them in debt by tens of thousands of pounds, and that in some cases they lost their contracts or went to prison.[2][7]

The report - which is confidential - was leaked to the BBC in September 2014, and described the Horizon system as, in some cases, "not fit for purpose".[7][8] The system had, according to the report, not been tracking money from lottery terminals, tax disc sales or cash machines - and the initial Post Office Ltd investigation had not looked for the cause of the errors, instead accusing the sub-postmasters of theft.[7] The BBC's article on the report also said that training on the system was not good enough, that "equipment was outdated", and that "power cuts and communication problems made things worse".[7] The lead investigator for Second Sight claimed that there were about 12,000 communication failures every year, with software defects at 76 branches and old and unreliable hardware.[3]

Post Office Ltd then went into mediation with the affected sub-postmasters.[7] By December, however, MPs had criticised Post Office Ltd for how it handled the sub-postmasters claims, and 140 of those affected had withdrawn their support for the Post Office-run mediation scheme.[9] 144 MPs had been contacted by sub-postmasters about the issue, and James Arbuthnot, the lead MP, accused the organisation of rejecting 90% of applications for mediation.[9] Post Office Ltd said that the claims by Mr Arbuthnot were "regrettable and surprising".[9] Arbuthnot further claimed that Post Office Ltd had been "duplicitous", and said that

“I do not want to build up hopes that the other methods are going to be more successful than the current ones, so I will not be specific – but it will involve legal and political campaigns,”[4]

In February 2015, Computer World UK, a UK trade magazine for IT managers, reported that Post Office Ltd were obstructing the investigation by refusing to hand over key files to Second Sight.[3] Post Office Ltd claimed in a Select committee hearing that they "have been working with Second Sight over the last few weeks on what we agreed at the outset. We have been providing the information.”, but the lead investigator for Second Sight, when asked by Adrian Bailey if this were the case, said "No, it is not.", as he had not been given access to prosecution files, which he needed to back up his suspicions that Post Office Ltd had brought cases against sub-postmasters with "inadequate investigation and inadequate evidence”.[3] He said that these files were still outstanding eighteen months after they had been requested.[4]

Investigation cancelled

In March 2015, Private Eye and other sources reported the news that Post Office Ltd had ordered Second Sight to end their investigation just one day before the report was due to be published, and to destroy all the paperwork which they had not handed over.[1][4] They then scrapped the independent committee set up to oversee the investigation, as well as the mediation scheme for sub-postmasters, and published a report which cleared themselves of any wrongdoing.[1]

Of the 136 cases, 56 had been closed, and Post Office Ltd would put the rest forward for "mediation" unless a court ruling prevented them from doing so.[4] After ending the inquiry, Post Office Ltd said that there were no widescale problems, and that

“This has been an exhaustive and informative process which has confirmed that there are no system-wide problems with our computer system and associated processes. We will now look to resolve the final outstanding cases as quickly as possible.”[4][10]

Individual cases

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 "How to suppress a scandal, Pt 94". Private Eye. Private Eye. Retrieved 2015-09-29.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Prodger, Matt (2013-07-08). "Bug found in Post Office row computer system". BBC News. BBC. Retrieved 2015-03-29.
  3. 1 2 3 4 Jee, Charlotte (2015-02-03). "Post Office obstructing Horizon probe, investigator claims". Computerworld UK. Computerworld UK. Retrieved 2015-03-29.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Flinders, Karl (2015-03-11). "Post Office ends working group for IT system investigation day before potentially damaging report". ComputerWeekly.com. Retrieved 2015-03-29.
  5. 1 2 3 4 "Post Office Limited Horizon System". WhatDoTheyKnow. 2011-05-31. Retrieved 2015-03-29.
  6. ↑ "Pathway and the Post Office: the lessons learned". ComputerWeekly.com. ComputerWeekly.com. Retrieved 2015-03-29.
  7. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 "Post Office IT system criticised in report". BBC News. BBC. 2014-09-09. Retrieved 2015-03-29.
  8. ↑ Nguyen, Anh (2014-09-10). "Some Post Office Horizon IT was 'unfit for purpose', investigators say". Computerworld UK. Computerworld UK. Retrieved 2015-03-29.
  9. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Prodger, Matt (2014-12-09). "MPs attack Post Office sub-postmaster mediation scheme". BBC News. BBC. Retrieved 2015-09-29.
  10. ↑ "IT system working, says Post Office". Express & Star. Express & Star. 2015-03-10. Retrieved 2015-03-29.
  11. 1 2 3 Plimmer, Gill; Bounds, Andrew (2015-12-12). "Dream turns to nightmare for post office couple in fraud ordeal". ft.com. Financial Times. Retrieved 2015-03-29.

External links

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