Horizon System Communication Failures

Alan Bates (JFSA) made this Freedom of Information request to Royal Mail Group Limited
This authority is not subject to FOI law, so is not legally obliged to respond (details).
This request has been closed to new correspondence. Contact us if you think it should be reopened.

The request was partially successful.

Alan Bates (JFSA)

Dear Royal Mail Group Limited,

In your response (your ref: KFME-8TQJVX) to my Freedom of Information request dated 26th April 2012 where you clearly state that nowhere within The Post Office are you aware or have ever been notified of any Bit Error Rate testing results of Horizon, you do confirm that Horizon does suffer from communication failures.

How many communication failures has Horizon suffered from in the last 12 months or is this information not logged or recorded or ever made known to The Post Office?

Yours faithfully,

Alan Bates

Royal Mail Group Limited

1 Attachment

Dear Mr Bates,

Your Ref: CALS-8UQFLK

Thank you for your request for information that was received on 27 May
2012 and which we are considering under the Freedom of Information Act. 
Under the Act you should expect a reply from us to be sent by 26 June
2012, which is twenty working days from receipt of your request.

If for any reason we are unable to provide you with a full response within
that time, we will contact you explaining the reasons for this and giving
a revised date by which we will reply. 

Meantime, if you have any questions or would like to contact us about your
request, please contact us by telephone 0207 250 2561 or alternatively
email or write to us at the address below.  Please be assured that we are
giving this our attention and will get back to you shortly.

Yours sincerely

Cory Alexis

Freedom of Information Support
1^st Floor, Bunhill Row Wing
148 Old Street
London
EC1V 9HQ

Post Office Ltd is registered in England and Wales. Registered No.
2154540. Registered Office 148 Old Street, London, EC1V 9HQ. Post Office
and the Post Office logo are registered trade marks of Post Office Ltd.

Alan Bates (JFSA)

Dear Royal Mail Group Limited,

I understand that by law I should have received the information I requested about Horizon System Communication Failures by 26th June 2012.

Where is it?

Yours faithfully,
Alan Bates

Royal Mail Group Limited

Dear Mr Bates,

Your Ref: CALS-8UQFLK

Thank you for your email of the 27 June 2012.

Please accept my apologies that we were unable to respond to your request
by 26 June 2012 and please be assured that we will be replying to your
shortly.

If in the meantime you have any questions or would like to contact us about
your request, please contact us by telephone 0207 250 2561 or alternatively
email or write to us at the address below.

Yours sincerely

Andrew Moore

Freedom of Information Team
1st Floor, Bunhill Row Wing
148 Old Street
London
EC1V 9HQ

Post Office Ltd is registered in England and Wales. Registered No. 2154540.
Registered Office 148 Old Street, London, EC1V 9HQ. Post Office and the
Post Office logo are registered trade marks of Post Office Ltd.

|---------+-------------------------------------------->
| | Alan Bates |
| | <request-117628-aa838593@whatdoth|
| | eyknow.com> |
| | Sent by: Alan Bates |
| | <request-117628-aa838593@whatdoth|
| | eyknow.com> |
| | |
| | |
| | 27/06/2012 08:26 |
|---------+-------------------------------------------->
>----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
| |
| To: [Royal Mail Group request email] |
| cc: |
| Subject: Re: Freedom of Information request - Horizon System Communication Failures |
>----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

Dear Royal Mail Group Limited,

I understand that by law I should have received the information I
requested about Horizon System Communication Failures by 26th June
2012.

Where is it?

Yours faithfully,
Alan Bates

show quoted sections

Alan Bates (JFSA)

Dear Royal Mail Group Limited,

As the response has been delayed will you please state by what date it will be answered.

Yours faithfully,

Alan Bates

Royal Mail Group Limited

Dear Mr Bates,

Your Ref: CALS-8UQFLK

Thank you for your email of the 2 July 2012.

As requested, I can confirm that we will provide a response by Monday 9
July 2012.

If in the meantime you have any questions or would like to contact us about
your request, please contact us by telephone 0207 250 2561 or alternatively
email or write to us at the address below.

Yours sincerely

Andrew Moore

Freedom of Information Team
1st Floor, Bunhill Row Wing
148 Old Street
London
EC1V 9HQ

Post Office Ltd is registered in England and Wales. Registered No. 2154540.
Registered Office 148 Old Street, London, EC1V 9HQ. Post Office and the
Post Office logo are registered trade marks of Post Office Ltd.

|---------+-------------------------------------------->
| | Alan Bates |
| | <request-117628-aa838593@whatdoth|
| | eyknow.com> |
| | Sent by: Alan Bates |
| | <request-117628-aa838593@whatdoth|
| | eyknow.com> |
| | |
| | |
| | 02/07/2012 17:07 |
|---------+-------------------------------------------->
>----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
| |
| To: [Royal Mail Group request email] |
| cc: |
| Subject: Re: Freedom of Information request - Horizon System Communication Failures |
>----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

Dear Royal Mail Group Limited,

As the response has been delayed will you please state by what date
it will be answered.

Yours faithfully,

Alan Bates

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Alan Bates (JFSA)

Dear Royal Mail Group Limited,

Your last message stated I would receive a reply to my request by Monday 9th July. Today is 9th July and the reply has not been received. Did you mean on 9th July?

Yours faithfully,

Alan Bates

Alan Bates (JFSA)

Dear Royal Mail Group Limited,

Please pass this on to the person who conducts Freedom of Information reviews.

I am writing to request an internal review of Royal Mail Group Limited's handling of my FOI request 'Horizon System Communication Failures'.

I submitted a Freedom of Information request on 27th May 2012 and should, by law, have received a reply by 26th June. As no communication was received from Post Office by 26th June, on 27th June I wrote requesting information about the outstanding reply. In response I was informed that Post Office would be replying shortly, although it is a requirement of the Freedom of Information Act that if there is to be a delay in replying, a date as to when it will be supplied should be included, but none was.
On 2nd July I again wrote to ask for a date clarifying when the outstanding request would be answered. The response given by Post Office was by 9th July, but yet again no reply appeared. On 9th July I wrote for clarification as to whether the earlier response had meant to read on 9th July rather than by 9th July as had been quoted, as nothing had appeared by 9th July.
Currently no reply has been received to either the original Freedom of Information request or the clarification requested. I presuming, unless you know otherwise, that this delay is as a result of the major communications problems the Post Office Horizon system has been suffering around the country today.

A full history of my FOI request and all correspondence is available on the Internet at this address:
http://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/ho...

Yours faithfully,

Alan Bates

Alan Bates (JFSA)

Dear Royal Mail Group Limited,

Please pass this on to the person who conducts Freedom of Information reviews.

I am writing to request an internal review of Royal Mail Group Limited's handling of my FOI request 'Horizon System Communication Failures'.

Due to the confusion previously, will you clarify the current position relating to the internal review of this FOI request and clarify by when it will be answered.

A full history of my FOI request and all correspondence is available on the Internet at this address:
http://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/ho...

Yours faithfully,

Alan Bates

Royal Mail Group Limited

1 Attachment

Dear Mr. Bates.

Thank you for your emails date 09/07/2012 and 17/07/2012 in relation to
your FOI Request to Royal mail Group. Please be assured that these are
receiving our attention and we get back to you as soon as our enquiries
are complete.

In the meantime if you have any questions or would like to add any further
information for consideration then please do not hesitate to contact me.

Yours sincerely,

Daniel Tulp
Company Secretary's Office

Royal Mail is a trading name of Royal Mail Group Ltd. Registered in
England and Wales.
Registered number 4138203. Registered office at 100 Victoria Embankment,
LONDON, EC4Y 0HQ

Royal Mail Group Limited

Dear Mr Bates

Ref: CALS-8UQFLK

I am writing in response to your email received by Post Office Limited on
27 May 2012 which I am dealing with under the terms of the Freedom of
Information Act 2000. Please accept my apologies for the delay in
responding.

Post Office Ltd identifies a communication incident as an interruption
between the service connection or dedicated telephone line between the Post
Office® branch and the data centre. Whilst interruptions to communications
networks are a generic factor for any industry using telephone lines, Post
Office Ltd uses industry standard technology enabling the branch to use the
backup communications when the primary communication channel is
unavailable. All of our branches currently have a router which gives them a
secondary connection method (i.e. a wireless mobile connection).
Interruptions to service connections do not create an issue for the Horizon
system.

These interruptions can be caused by a multitude of factors such as utility
providers digging through cables, environmental factors such as flooding or
high winds damaging overhead cables, physical damage to the communication
wire or the equipment in the branch, such as wires accidentally being
pulled from sockets.

Turning to your request for information, I can confirm that we do hold
information relevant to your request. There were 11,862 such incidents in
the period June 2011 to May 2012 in a branch operating network of over
11,800 branches. To reiterate, these communication incidents are caused by
a variety of factors, as described above, and do not create an issue for
the Horizon system.

I hope the information I have provided on this occasion is of use, if I can
be of further help or you have any queries about this response please
contact me via the email address [Royal Mail Group request email].

I am aware that you have registered a request for an internal review with
Royal Mail Group in respect of the delay in responding, however if you are
dissatisfied with any additional factors in respect of the handling of this
response, you do have a right to request a review. You can do this by
writing to the address below stating your reasons for your internal review
request.

Head of Information Compliance
Royal Mail Group
Company Secretary's Office
100 Victoria Embankment
LONDON
EC4Y 0HQ
[Royal Mail Group request email]

If, having requested an internal review by Royal Mail, you are still not
satisfied with our response you also have a right of appeal to the
Information Commissioner at:

Information Commissioner's Office
Wycliffe House
Water Lane
Wilmslow
Cheshire
SK9 5AF
Telephone: 01625 545 700
www.informationcommissioner.gov.uk

Yours sincerely

Peter Johnson
Information Manager

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Royal Mail Group Limited

2 Attachments

Dear Mr Bates,

Please find attached a response to your recent Internal Review request.

Yours sincerely,

Kate Fearn
Company Secretary's Office
Information Rights Officer
[Royal Mail Group request email]

Royal Mail is a trading name of Royal Mail Group Ltd. Registered in
England and Wales.
Registered number 4138203. Registered office at 100 Victoria Embankment,
LONDON, EC4Y 0HQ