Day 134 - 13 Jun 95 - Page 10
1 sort of table that we see in bundle XII at page 700.
2
3 MR. JUSTICE BELL: The last document in what?
4
5 MR. RAMPTON: In E is a crew turnover report which, as your
6 Lordship observed -----
7
8 MR. JUSTICE BELL: I see that, but that in itself is only a
9 printout from the computer.
10
11 MR. RAMPTON: Yes.
12
13 MR. JUSTICE BELL: What I am suggesting -- it may be if you were
14 a particularly perverse sort of person, instead of just
15 pressing three keys on your computer and getting something
16 like page 700, you would assemble 50 pieces of paper like
17 the last sheet in E and then word process it out. But what
18 it seems to me, just as you would press certain keys on
19 your computer to get a printout in the form which is the
20 last sheet in E, so you would press certain other keys on
21 your computer and get something like 700.
22
23 MR. RAMPTON: It might be so. I do not know.
24
25 MR. JUSTICE BELL: I mean, one gradually gets used to
26 appreciating what computers can do. There will be
27 somewhere in the computer a running record of the number of
28 stores which are open, and there will be all sorts of
29 information having been pumped in by various individuals
30 all over the country and in Head Office.
31
32 The magic of a computer enables one every so often to just
33 press a few keys and get a printout like page 700. Without
34 talking too much, if I can give you an example, in a modern
35 barristers' clerk's room, all sorts of information about
36 the work which the barrister has done, the fees charged and
37 everything, is put in ---
38
39 MR. RAMPTON: It seems to be, yes.
40
41 MR. JUSTICE BELL: -- once a month. One of the staff in the
42 clerk's room presses about four keys on his keyboard and
43 out comes what is called an "Aged Debt Report" which means
44 it tells you how much you are owed in fees, how much has
45 been owing for three months, how much between three and
46 six, how much between six and a year, and we all know how
47 aged some of debts are. But there is not a single bit of
48 paper in the room which has contributed to that end
49 result. That is why I describe it as "magic". I would
50 have thought much the same process has led to this. (To
51 the witness): But do you know?
52 A. I know about certain lines of it. If I explain then
53 perhaps the crew turnover?
54
55 Q. Having talked far too much, I suggest you tell us about the
56 lines you know and Ms. Steel can ask for any further
57 information she wants.
58 A. For example, for the crew turnover, it is held on
59 computer, but the only way we in Human Resources -- I know
60 the person who compiles this can actually obtain the figure
