The Post Office’s Horizon accounting system alleged to have caused miscarriages of justice is due to be replaced by a product from IBM, according to a member of parliament.
Andrew Bridgen, the MP for North West Leicestershire, told the House of Commons that he had an email indicating the Post Office was about to make the switch, despite the company’s defence of Horizon.
"After two years in which the Post Office has consistently claimed that its Horizon system software is robust and 100% reliable, I now have in my position an email clearly showing that the Post Office is now urgently seeking a replacement software system from IBM," Bridgen said.
"I am sure that the [minister for business George Freeman] can draw his own conclusion from the happy coincidence that the investigation is now closed. It appears to me that it is indeed now sunset for the Horizon system."
Following his remarks, Bridgen urged the government to perform a full judicial review into Horizon, the alleged problems of which are claimed to have resulted in some postmasters being mistakenly sent to prison for seemingly fraudulent accounting practices.
Kevan Jones, an MP for North Durham, told the Commons that one of his constituents had been arrested after being told by the Post Office that a problem with the Horizon system would rectify itself.
The charges were later dropped, but the Post Office was said to have subsequently attempted to have the constituent prosecuted, in a case that was also dropped without conviction.
"[The Post Offices] is out of control," Jones said in Parliament. "It has led to people’s lives being ruined and, as we have heard, in some cases to people being given prison sentences when clearly they are innocent."
Defending the Post Office, which is owned by the government, Freeman, the parliamentary under secretary at the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills, told the Commons: "It is difficult on the face of it to characterise either the training or the helpline as having been inadequate.
He added that the "vast majority of people who use or have used the Horizon system since it was introduced 15 years ago have in fact done so successfully," but said he would arrange a meeting with the Post Office to raise concerns around wrongful prosecutions.
Reports by Second Sight, a forensic accountancy firm, had previously found that there was no evidence of systemic flaws in Horizon, but did find bugs that had led to overbilling.
The Post Office and IBM have yet to respond to requests for comment from CBR.
