Expert Evidence and The Post Office Horizon IT Inquiry

The Post Office Horizon IT Inquiry is currently holding the public hearings for its phases 5 and 6. The expert evidence relied on by the Post Office will be under scrutiny as the Inquiry hears from Gareth Jenkins, former Distinguished Engineer at Fujitsu Services Ltd, from 25 to 28 June. The expert evidence provided by Mr Jenkins has already been subject to criticism. 

We are proud that two members of EWI provided excellent, independent expert evidence or expert advice on the Horizon case. Their roles in the case demonstrate how important it is for Expert Witnesses to understand and apply the core competencies of the profession. 

EWI Honorary Fellow and former Treasurer, Kay Linnell, is providing evidence to the Inquiry on 20 June. Kay reflected on her involvement in the Horizon case, initially as an expert and later as a member of the Justice for Subpostmasters Alliance steering group, in an insightful interview with EWI. While EWI member Jason Coyne talked to us about his fascinating involvement in a Spotlight on... the Post Office Horizon Scandal, where he was instructed as an Expert Witness initially by the Post Office, and then later by the Postmasters. Jason first spotted errors in the Horizon system in 2003, but had his findings dismissed by the Post Office. 

The EWI has developed Core Competencies for Expert Witnesses, which form the basis for all of our training courses. It is vital for Expert Witnesses to develop and maintain these core competencies to ensure that they meet their duties to the court and the Justice System. We urge all Expert Witnesses to undertake training to develop these core competencies and all instructing parties to ensure that the Expert Witnesses that they instruct are able to demonstrate they have these core competencies.

We can only speculate how different the Post Office Horizon case might have been if all the Expert Witnesses involved had had these core competencies.