I don't think the state of broadband can be the cause here. Banks, supermarkets and even GP surgeries were able to support complex accounting systems or patient

I don't think the state of broadband can be the cause here. Banks, supermarkets and even GP surgeries were able to support complex accounting systems or patient records for decades. Seems like the Futisu team running Horizon decided to reinvent everything badly. Much of government IT was being given to consultancies like Fujitsu/EDS in the 15 years since 1994. These contracts ended badly: https://www.computerweekly.com/news/1280096810/Why-did-EDS-cough-up-25m-to-HMRC https://www.computerweekly.com/news/1280096810/Why-did-EDS-c... especially for the public paying the bills. Martha Lane Fox and the GDS pointed out the folly of this approach in 2010 https://gds.blog.gov.uk/story-2010/ https://gds.blog.gov.uk/story-2010/ They've done an amazing job overall, but hubris overcame them with things like Verify https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.computerweekly.com/news/252496069/Experian-to-close-more-than-two-million-Govuk-Verify-accounts%3famp=1 https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.computerweekly.com/news/252...