Post Office’s Communications With The DTI Regarding Its Repeated Delays In Accepting Horizon August 1999-January 2000

Post Office Limited did not have the information requested.

Dear Post Office Limited,

On 22nd March 2021 during proceedings at the Court of Appeal, a six-page disclosure note provided by the Post Office was discussed. The document gave details of Post Office Board Minutes and associated reports from 1999-2000 (see below, p13-19).

https://www.postofficetrial.com/2021/03/...

In this evidence it was apparent that the Post Office Board decided to defer acceptance of Horizon (and therefore its roll-out) from an original date in August 1999 until at least 24th January 2000.

The reasons for doing so were varied but included a number of high severity incidents around ‘stability if the system’ and ‘quality of accounting data’.

Please can you disclose all communications between the Post Office and the DTI (July 1999-January 2000) in which these deferrals were made known to the sponsor department and the reasons Post Office gave for the delays in its acceptance and roll out of Horizon.

Yours sincerely,
Eleanor Shaikh

Information Rights Team, Post Office Limited

Our ref: FOI2021/00484

Dear Eleanor Shaikh,

Thank you for your request for information which was received on 3rd June.
Your request is being considered under the terms of the Freedom of
Information Act 2000.

The Act requires that a response must be given promptly, and in any event
within 20 working days. We will therefore reply by 1st July.

Please note that due to members of the Information Rights team being
absent due to Covid-19, it is taking longer to process information
requests at this time and regrettably we may be unable to respond to your
request by the due date identified above. We are progressing information
requests as quickly as possible in these circumstances and apologise for
any delay.

Please remember to quote the reference number above in any future
communications.

Yours sincerely,

Jackie Lawrence

Information Rights Team

Finsbury Dials

20 Finsbury Street

London

EC2Y 9AQ

Information Rights Team, Post Office Limited

1 Attachment

Dear Eleanor Shaikh,

Please find the response attached to your Freedom of Information request.

Regards,

David Sinclair

Information Rights Team

Ground Floor

Finsbury Dials

20 Finsbury Street

London EC2Y 9AQ