Fujitsu milks £110m from HMRC in six months with hardly a public stir

Fujitsu has raked in slightly below £110m from its IT providers contracts with HMRC alone in six months, because the provider continues to evade punishment for its position within the Put up Workplace Horizon scandal.

Sir Alan Bates, the campaigning former subpostmaster who led the combat in opposition to the Put up Workplace, stated there seems to be extra questions being requested in regards to the “wildly exaggerated” settlement he acquired, than the massive sums of taxpayer money going to Fujitsu.

In keeping with authorities figures, between the start of April and finish of September this yr, Fujitsu acquired £110m from HMRC in return for IT providers.

The determine for six months is greater than double the full £48m value of the Put up Workplace scandal public inquiry between 2000 and 2024; and twice the estimated £50m value of Operation Olympos, the nationwide police investigation into the scandal. Invoices for desktop providers, bodily internet hosting and infrastructure, pill computer systems and software program licencing are included.

Though round £20m lower than the identical interval final yr, when Fujitsu was paid £129m, and a possible signal of HMRC lowering work with the provider, it demonstrates a reliance on Fujitsu in authorities. The federal government division is known as Fujitsu’s “UK money cow”, however the controversial provider additionally works with numerous public sector organisations in addition to authorities departments. For instance, it has contracts with authorities departments such because the Residence Workplace, the Overseas Workplace, the Ministry of Defence and the Division for Schooling. It additionally works throughout native authorities and different public providers.

In keeping with public sector market watcher Tussell, Fujitsu made gross sales price £453m to the UK public sector between Might 2024 and April 2025, which was 1.2% increased than the £447.5m it was handed in the identical interval from 2023 to 2024.

Fujitsu’s Horizon system is on the centre of the scandal, which noticed subpostmasters blamed and punished for account shortfalls attributable to pc errors. A whole lot of individuals have been wrongly convicted of crimes primarily based on information from the defective system, with many despatched to jail. Many extra had their lives ruined because of enormous monetary prices, with the system linked to 13 suicides and 10 tried suicides. However simply this month, Fujitsu was awarded a contract by the government-owned Put up Workplace price one other £41m and containing an choice for one more 12 months on prime.

Bates questioned why there’s no more strain on Fujitsu, given the taxpayer funds it continues to obtain, saying: “It appears unusual why so many individuals appear serious about my settlement, which was wildly exaggerated, however hardly anybody is taking discover of the big quantities being thrown at Fujitsu. Is the federal government going to proceed handing all this cash to Fujitsu earlier than they understand how a lot it will pay in the direction of the prices of the scandal?”

Learn extra: Fujitsu’s position within the Put up Workplace scandal: Every thing it’s essential know.

The federal government figures add extra weight to claims inside Fujitsu that, regardless of the destructive influence of its hyperlink to the Put up Workplace scandal, the corporate will get its UK authorities enterprise again to regular inside about 12 to 18 months after a interval of “flux”.

This was the view of a member of Fujitsu’s prime staff of executives. In a recording heard by Pc Weekly, a member of the chief staff stated he anticipated to see issues enhance when Fujitsu agrees the quantity it is going to pay in the direction of the prices of the Put up Workplace scandal. The manager’s remark got here in July this yr, days after the publication of a public inquiry report that linked the scandal, which Fujitsu fuelled, to suicides.

His feedback additionally level to a lack of awareness in Fujitsu in regards to the injury the provider has performed to individuals’s lives. Extra proof of this got here in in April 2024, only a few months after Fujitsu had promised to not bid for public sector contracts, Pc Weekly revealed, by a leaked presentation, that Fujitsu gross sales workers got a circulate diagram instructing them easy methods to bid for presidency contracts throughout the IT provider’s self-imposed ban.

However there are indicators that HMRC is able to break free from Fujitsu amid public strain in relation to the scandal. The clearest of which got here in Might, when the division started in search of a provider for a 10-year Knowledge Centre Exit (DCE) contract, which can start in April subsequent yr. The contract, price £500m, is designed to exit some Fujitsu’s providers.

In keeping with the tender: “The first goal of the DCE Programme is to exit three Fujitsu-hosted datacentres and migrate related providers to new vacation spot platforms.” Amazon Net Companies is barely provider within the operating for the contract.

Pc Weekly first uncovered the scandal in 2009, revealing the tales of seven subpostmasters and the issues they suffered as a consequence of Horizon accounting software program, which led to probably the most widespread miscarriage of justice in British historical past (see under timeline of Pc Weekly articles in regards to the scandal since 2009).