Thriller Post Assign of job software developer printed in 1995 Horizon project doc

As old subpostmasters await answers from a govt-backed investigation into the Post Assign of job Capture software device, a 27-one year-used Horizon project doc answers a severe query.

Since the airing of ITV’s drama in regards to the long-working Post Assign of job Horizon scandal, old subpostmasters who had suffered same issues with the Capture software that pre-dated Horizon enjoy come forward.

Questions were asked by politicians and the old Capture customers themselves, on the opposite hand it has to this level been unclear which organisation developed the software, with the Post Assign of job unable to determine the developer, blaming the passage of time.

Pc Weekly has beforehand printed that IT dealer Unisys pre-installed the software on hardware for customers, but can now express that the IT dealer also wrote the software.

Following a govt soft gape in 1994, a Horizon project assertion of service requirements (SSR) used to be issued to shortlisted corporations. It described the purposeful requirements of the project, fair like migrating from existing automatic programs, including the Capture software.

“The Post Assign of job on the 2nd operates a fluctuate of automatic services which ought to be considered by service suppliers,” the SSR doc acknowledged.

Contained in the doc, there is a section dedicated to Capture (Appendix 3-4). Underneath the heading Intellectual Property Rights, it acknowledged: “The utility has been developed for the Post Assign of job by Unisys Ltd the content of their bear 4GL construction utility (generic postal architecture). The psychological property rights in the enchancment software stay with Unisys, however the Capture utility itself is ‘owned’ by the Post Assign of job.”

The Capture device used to be presented in 1992. Described as a glorified spreadsheet, it enabled subpostmasters to automate accounting. Unlike the Horizon device, it used to be no longer a fancy core device rolled out at some level of the Post Assign of job division community, but standalone software on an particular particular person client’s computer.

The SSR doc from 1995 explained: “Capture is a support teach of business, no longer an EPOS, device and data is no longer captured in trusty time.” At the time the SSR used to be created, in March 1995, about 1,600 Post Assign of job branches had been the content of Capture. That number used to be forecast to rise to 2,000 by March the next one year.

The software had been fully rewritten in 1994 following “indispensable investment”, in response to an August 1994 letter considered by Pc Weekly. In the letter – from Tom Coleman, the National Federation of Subpostmasters (NFSP) legend supervisor on the Post Assign of job Company Vogue Centre on the time – a rewrite of the software used to be printed to NFSP assistant fashioned secretary Kevin Davis.

Pc Weekly contacted Unisys, which said it has been unable in its investigations to search out any hyperlink to a role in setting up the Capture software. There could be now not this kind of thing as a advice that Unisys performed any role in sanctioning and prosecuting subpostmasters.

The Capture software did suffer from errors, and after the Post Assign of job Horizon scandal hit the headlines, old customers of the pre-Horizon device, who had been blamed for accounting shortfalls and even prosecutions in the 1990s, came forward.

Steve Marston, a old subpostmaster in Bury, Lancashire, used to be prosecuted in 1996 for theft and fallacious accounting following an unexplained shortfall of practically £80,000. He said he had never had any issues the content of the paper-based completely accounting device till his division, which he ran from 1973, started the content of the Capture device.

Steve Lewis used to be a subpostmaster and Capture client in South Wales. He had labored for the Post Assign of job since 1983, before every thing as a counter clerk, and used to be a Post Assign of job auditor for pretty a couple of years.

When he suffered unexplained losses the content of Capture, he used to be suggested by the Post Assign of job that his used to be an remoted case. He lost his exchange, needed to promote his dwelling and suffered psychological health points, with connected relationship troubles.

The Post Assign of job has claimed the passage of time and adjustments to data storage programs because it separated from Royal Mail Community suggest it does no longer enjoy a whole portray of the Capture device.

The Post Assign of job did bustle a Capture helpdesk. The SSR doc acknowledged: “The Post Assign of job operates a central helpdesk facility, situated at Farnborough, which supplies the first line of toughen to outlets for all education, hardware and software issues.”

The doc also printed that Capture customers had been given one-day, on-situation training offered by an completely expert company trainer, comprising “installation of the hardware and software, fundamental training in the content of a PC and intensive training on the capabilities of this device itself”.

In February this one year, after being puzzled by Pc Weekly, Unisys said it can presumably well presumably enact an internal investigation of its role in the Capture device’s construction. Following its completion in April, the IT company said it had printed no evidence that it developed the software. A company spokesperson said on the time: “Our review, which has now concluded, has no longer uncovered any evidence that Unisys used to be inquisitive in regards to the enchancment of the Capture software at anxiousness.”

On account of the dearth of recordsdata, subpostmasters and their supporters, fair like Kevan Jones, the Labour MP for North Durham, who no longer too long previously stepped down from Parliament, enjoy forced the govt to search out out more about Capture. 

Jones has been campaigning for Horizon victims for over a decade, and more no longer too long previously, has helped Capture customers salvage answers.

He said the indisputable truth that it has taken time to easily express the dealer of Capture is a reflection of the whole Horizon scandal. “All the pieces to enact with Horizon, and now Capture, has perfect been printed by dragging the Post Assign of job kicking and screaming.”

Jones added that Unisys has questions to answer about its role. A Unisys spokesperson suggested Pc Weekly that this could review the SSR doc sooner than commenting.

The government no longer too long previously presented it is bringing in specialist investigators, Kroll, to leer whether the Capture device could presumably well presumably simply enjoy also ended in subpostmasters being wrongly prosecuted.

A Post Assign of job spokesperson said: “The Department for Alternate commissioned Kroll, so we await recordsdata on what they discover/put. We don’t enjoy from now on assertion.”

The Post Assign of job scandal used to be first exposed by Pc Weekly in 2009, revealing the reports of seven subpostmasters and the issues they suffered due to the accounting software (look timeline of Pc Weekly articles in regards to the scandal beneath).

• Also be taught: What it be necessary to know in regards to the Horizon scandal •

• Also leer: ITV’s documentary – Mr Bates vs The Post Assign of job: The trusty yarn •

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