Post Office IT head resigns amid Horizon delays

THE technology head of Post Office is stepping down after a year in the role as the project to replace the troubled Horizon IT system continues to face significant delays and escalating costs, reported the BBC.

Chris Brocklesby, who was appointed as "chief transformation officer" in August 2023 on a one-year contract, is set to leave on 6 September. His departure was announced in a message to Post Office employees by interim chief executive Owen Woodley.

The Post Office has been grappling with the challenge of replacing the Horizon computer system, originally supplied by Fujitsu. Efforts to build a new system using Amazon’s cloud computing services were scrapped in 2022. As a result, the Post Office has spent over £95 million to extend the Horizon contract until April next year.

The complexity and age of the Horizon system have made the transition to a new system both expensive and technically difficult.

According to reports, a fully operational replacement may not be ready until the end of the decade. Horizon, which was introduced in 1999 after a problematic development phase by ICL (now Fujitsu), has been at the centre of one of the country's largest miscarriages of justice.

Faulty data from the system led to the wrongful conviction of hundreds of sub-postmasters for theft and false accounting, a scandal that is still under investigation.

In 2015, the Post Office enlisted IBM to develop a replacement for Horizon, but that project was also abandoned. Despite these setbacks, the Post Office has made some progress, with pilots for the new system currently running in five branches.

According to the report, the company has requested additional funding from the Department for Business and Trade to continue the project.

A Post Office spokesperson credited Brocklesby with advancing the firm's technology and laying a strong foundation for the eventual replacement of Horizon. Andy Nice, the former transformation director at Camelot, will take over from Brocklesby.