Question to the Department for Business and Trade:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, whether she has had recent discussions with Post Office Limited on preventing errors with the current Horizon software.

There have been several iterations of the Horizon system since its introduction in 1999. The current version of the system was introduced from 2017. Post Office continue to make improvements to the system and will be moving away from Horizon to a new IT cloud-based system. Government recently announced that it is providing £103 million to help with the development of the replacement for the Horizon IT system and to ensure Horizon is maintained while that replacement is rolled out.

While publicly owned, Post Office operates at arm’s length from Government as a commercial business with its own Board. Post Office reports to Government on key issues and Government has robust mechanisms in place to maintain oversight of the company.