The Post Office Computer Scandal -and- How to make sure it doesn't happen to you
- Calendar
- Lecture
- Date
- Wednesday, 14 May 2025 7:30 pm
- Locations
- & CSTS Zoom Channel ID 912 0723 6181 , Royal Agricultural University - Sir Emrys Jones Lecture Theatre
- Speaker
- Prof. Harold Thimbleby, Professor & Computer Software Consultant
- Swansea University
Description
Prof Harold Thimbleby is emeritus professor of computer science at Swansea University; he is a well-known speaker and has given over 600 presentations around the world.
Harold works on fixing the problems that computers create. In 2014 he was an expert witness in a criminal case where he was able to establish hospital computers had created flawed evidence that had led to 73 nurses being accused of being dishonest. It was an NHS scandal mirroring the well-known Post Office Horizon Scandal where close to 1,000 postmasters were convicted of being dishonest because of flawed computer evidence. The experience led to Harold campaigning about the way computers are misunderstood, and the absurd common law presumption that computers are reliable.
In 2021, he published Fix IT - See and Solve the Problems of Digital Healthcare, which won a best book award from the British Medical Association, who said everyone in healthcare should read it. A free magazine-like summary of the book is available at https://www.harold.thimbleby.net/booklet
Location
& CSTS Zoom Channel ID 912 0723 6181
- Street
- Market Place
- City
- GL7 Cirencester
- County
- England
Based in Cirencester, Capital of the Cotswolds
Royal Agricultural University - Sir Emrys Jones Lecture Theatre
- Street
- Sir Emrys Jones Lecture Theatre, RAU
- City
- GL7 6JS Cirencester
- County
- Gloucestershire
Royal Agricultural University (RAU) is situated close to the junction of the A419 (Cirencester to Stroud road) and the A433 (Cirencester to Bath road) on the south-west edge of Cirencester.
The entrance to the Stroud Road car park is off the A419. (Satellite View, RAU page and RAU campus map)
The Parkinson Lecture Theatre (19 on the map) can be found by entering from the Stroud Road car park, and following the path on the right-hand side of the Garner Lecture Block, the first entrance on the right leads to the Parkinson Lecture Theatre.
What3words= televise.brief.ripples