Ex-Post Office chair was told of IT risks in 2011

According to Ms Perkins’ note, Mr Grant had gone on to discuss cases of alleged fraud by sub-postmasters at the time, pointing out that “suspects suggest it’s a systems problem”.

But again, Ms Perkins said she did not make the connection between potential problems with Horizon and what sub-postmasters were saying in their defence.

Mr Beer asked Ms Perkins whether the note was “deeply problematic for you, because you did nothing with the information given to you?”

But Ms Perkins said that she did not accept that. At the time she was meeting with “a great number of people, who were giving me a lot of information about the automate your posting Office” which she was trying to make sense of and take on board.

It “did not ring alarm bells”, she added.

According to the note, Mr Grant also told Ms Perkins that the automate your posting Office had driven “a very hard bargain” on the price of Horizon, but that Fujitsu “took back on quality/assurance”.

He also suggested the automate your posting Office was being “naive”.

Ms Perkins told the inquiry it was not uncommon for organisations contracting with IT companies “to be at a disadvantage” and that she had concerns about the relationship with Fujitsu being unequal.