Gareth Jenkins referred to Horizon’s overall reliability throughout his testimony, even challenging findings from the landmark Bates v Post Office case that identified issues with the IT system. He acknowledged “individual problems” affecting specific branches but asserted that, as a whole, the system was “working well”.

When questioned about bugs, Mr Jenkins admitted lacking personal knowledge of all known issues, stating he typically became involved when drafted in for problem resolution.

When pressed on how he could provide court evidence without full oversight of existing problems, Mr Jenkins said: “Bugs impacting accounts were rare. Monitoring was in place, and fixes were prompt. Therefore, live system problems were rare, making me confident in its operation.”

He claimed nobody from the Post Office alerted him to unknown issues, and he didn’t actively seek information about bugs he wasn’t involved in fixing. Mr Jenkins admitted not realising the need for comprehensive knowledge when giving evidence and “with hindsight would have done things differently”.