Fujitsu ought to cease getting taxpayer hundreds of thousands after Post Office scandal, say MPs

The firm behind the dodgy IT system that brought on the Post Office scandal should be banned from getting any extra Government contracts, MPs are demanding.

Fujitsu remains to be being allowed to bid for profitable work even after its defective Horizon software program led to harmless postmasters being despatched to jail.

The IT system constructed by the Japanese agency ruined the lives of a whole bunch of Post Office staff when it mistakenly made it seem like cash was lacking from their branches. Postmasters have been wrongly blamed for the shortfalls and made to cowl the losses, with a whole bunch convicted and a few put in jail.

Labour MP Kate Osborne, who has campaigned on the problem, mentioned it “just isn’t acceptable” that ministers are nonetheless rewarding Fujitsu. She mentioned: “It is obvious that Fujitsu have been at fault and it’s astounding that the Government is constant to award them billions of kilos price of contracts.

“Fujitsu’s role in the Post Office scandal is well known. The very least that they could do is not give them any new contracts. I think it’s a kick in the teeth for the former postmasters that they can see this company making millions of pounds.

“For many of them it destroyed their lives, it made them bankrupt, they lost their businesses and homes. And tragically some of them even took their own lives. It is a disgrace.”

Ms Osborne called for the Government to pause Fujitsu’s contracts in Parliament in October 2022, but ministers declined. The Jarrow MP’s constituent Christopher Head, who had been Britain’s youngest postmaster, was driven out of business after he was wrongly blamed for a £88,000 shortfall.

Since 2012, the public sector has awarded Fujitsu almost 200 contracts worth a combined total of £6.8 billion, according to analysts Tussell. It provides IT services to Government departments including the Home Office, the Foreign Office, Defra and the Ministry of Defence. Contracts include the Police National Computer, which stores criminal records, the Government’s flood warning system, and the national emergency alerts system launched last year.

In August, the Mirror revealed that Fujitsu had been handed a £1million contract to provide computer services for HS2.

The Government has said Fujitsu may be forced to stump up cash to contribute towards the compensation for Post Office victims, but it is refusing to stop it bidding for contracts until a public inquiry into the scandal has concluded. The probe led by retired High Court judge Sir Wyn Williams was established in September 2020.

The Commons Business Committee has summoned Fujitsu to appear at a hearing in Parliament next week, which will also hear from Post Office minister Kevin Hollinrake and Alan Bates, the former postmaster who led efforts to expose the scandal. Justice Secretary Alex Chalk is holding meetings with senior judges as ministers look at overturning all the convictions of postmasters related to Horizon, with a final decision expected to be announced in days. A new law could be brought in to quash the convictions.

A Fujitsu spokesman said: “The present Post Office Horizon IT statutory inquiry is analyzing advanced occasions stretching again over 20 years to grasp who knew what, when, and what they did with that data. The inquiry has strengthened the devastating affect on postmasters’ lives and that of their households, and Fujitsu has apologised for its function of their struggling.

“Fujitsu is fully committed to supporting the inquiry in order to understand what happened and to learn from it. Out of respect for the inquiry process, it would be inappropriate for Fujitsu to comment further at this time.”