Call for evidence launched for Post Office Horizon IT Inquiry
Evidence received will support the Inquiry’s understanding of institutional settings and the experience of postmasters, employees and contractors at the Post Office Limited.
- Inquiry Chair Sir Wyn Williams has today launched a call for evidence to invite views about and gather evidence relating to the Post Office Limited’s IT system (Horizon) and events associated with its use
- while Sir Wyn will welcome evidence about all aspects of the use of Horizon which is relevant to the terms of reference of the Inquiry he would like to make clear his wish to receive a body of evidence relating to the human impact of the Horizon dispute
- to ensure the transparency of the Inquiry, information that it receives will be published on an additional website for public viewing whenever that is legally permissible and publication not inconsistent with other competing factors such data protection, confidentiality, and privacy
Evidence received will support the Inquiry’s understanding of institutional settings and the experience of postmasters, employees and contractors at the Post Office Limited both historically, and as the company seeks to respond to the findings in the Horizon judgments and implement the measures set out in the settlement agreement.
The call for evidence will invite evidence and information from the public on the Inquiry’s terms of reference, call for written statements on the human impact of the Horizon dispute and seek questions from the public to be posed to the participants in the stage 2 open evidence session, which will focus upon hearing from the Post Office Limited, Fujitsu and the Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy.
Today, he has published a Statement of Approach 002, setting out the type of information that will be made public, and when it will be available to view.
Records that meet the criteria set out in Statement of Approach 002 will be shared on a new webpage that can be accessed by anyone.
Sir Wyn Williams, Chair of the Horizon Post Office IT Inquiry, said:
I am very pleased that we have reached the point of a Call for Evidence in accordance with the timetable we set ourselves and I look forward to receiving a substantial volume of evidence both written and oral which will ensure that the Inquiry is very well equipped to ensure that it fulfils its terms of reference.
Today’s developments follow the publication of a previous Statement of Approach (001) last month, in which Sir Wyn set out that senior members of the Post Office Limited, Fujitsu and the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) will be invited to give evidence in formal open sessions as part of the Inquiry. Post Office Ltd, Fujitsu (which supplied the Horizon system) and BEIS have committed to fully cooperating with the Inquiry.
Individuals can view or participate in the Inquiry’s public hearings and a registration form is available.
The non-statutory Inquiry is committed to understanding and acknowledging what went wrong in relation to Horizon and to ensuring that there is a public summary of the failings that occurred at Post Office Ltd so that they should never be repeated.