Peer calls for Fujitsu pay £700m in interim because it prepares response to Publish Workplace scandal inquiry

Fujitsu will reply to the Publish Workplace statutory public inquiry’s half 1 report by Friday this week, with particulars of its monetary contribution lastly due on the final day of this month.

It has been 20 months since Fujitsu’s European head mentioned the provider was “morally obligated” to contribute financially, with peer James Arbuthnot demanding Fujitsu pay half the prices of the scandal, with an interim cost of £700m.

Alongside the federal government and the Publish Workplace, the IT provider was given a deadline of Friday 10 October to answer the Publish Workplace scandal public inquiry report, with a deadline of 31 October to stipulate a programme of restorative justice.

Based on the inquiry report, by the top of this month, “the [department for business and trade], Fujitsu and the Publish Workplace shall publish, both individually or collectively, a report outlining any agreed programme of restorative justice and/or any actions taken by that date to provide such a programme”.

Learn extra: Fujitsu’s position within the Publish Workplace scandal: Every little thing you could know

An inner Fujitsu doc instructed workers: “Constructing on work we began final yr, we’re targeted on formalising our potential response. You’ll recognize we will’t give additional particulars on this till we’ve formally responded to the inquiry, which we’re to do by tenth of October forward of the thirty first of October publication deadline…”

Up to now, Fujitsu has performed the ready sport, holding again any commitments till the statutory public inquiry was full. It was again in January 2024 when, throughout a Parliamentary choose committee listening to, Fujitsu’s head of Europe, Paul Patterson, mentioned Fujitsu is “morally obligated” to contribute to the prices, however that the extent could be decided by the end result of the Horizon scandal public inquiry.

Peer Arbuthnot, who has campaigned for subpostmasters for a few years, mentioned it’s no shock that Fujitsu is ready till the final potential second earlier than responding. “It ought to cease kicking the can down the street,” he mentioned. “Fujitsu has brought about nice hurt to 1000’s of individuals, and they need to pay a large amount to compensate for this. It’s true that others had been additionally accountable – the Publish Workplace managers, the authorized system, the accountants and the federal government. However the Horizon system was Fujitsu’s, and it was Fujitsu which was altering the subpostmasters’ accounts behind everybody’s backs and saying that they weren’t doing so.”

“Fujitsu then colluded with the Publish Workplace in securing miscarriages of justice,” mentioned Arbuthnot. “I imagine that they need to pay half of the prices of this entire dreadful matter, together with half of the redress for the subpostmasters and half of the prices of the inquiry. An interim cost now of £700m may start to revive its popularity, however that must be a long-term course of, not helped by their silence so far. It’s in its pursuits to be proactive about this, in the event that they wish to be in good grace with the British individuals.”

The human price of the scandal isn’t measurable, however the monetary price is. Billions of kilos of taxpayers’ cash have been spent on legal professionals and compensation for victims, in addition to the general public inquiry itself – a nationwide police investigation.

Authorized prices for the Publish Workplace and authorities run into a number of hundred thousands and thousands of kilos. Pc Weekly just lately revealed that the taxpayer-owned Publish Workplace paid one legislation agency, Herbert Smith Freehills (HSF), £86m only for providers associated to its illustration on the Publish Workplace scandal public inquiry between 2000 and 2025. That was close to double the price of the general public inquiry itself, which, in response to the general public inquiry’s monetary statements, price £48m between 2000 and 2024. In the meantime, the nationwide police investigation into the Publish Workplace scandal, Operation Olympos, is anticipated to price over £50m.

Then, in response to the newest authorities knowledge, it has up to now paid practically £1.2bn in compensation to eight,600 claimants who suffered by the hands of the Horizon system’s errors, the Publish Places of work response to them and Fujitsu’s complicity.

It was Fujitsu’s software program that brought about unexplained account shortfalls that subpostmasters had been blamed and punished for. It knew the software program had bugs, but its staff gave proof in court docket through the prosecutions of subpostmasters claiming it was strong and to not blame for the department account shortfalls.

However Fujitsu has continued to win profitable authorities IT contracts, with £450m raked in in the latest monetary yr, in response to figures from Tussell.

The Publish Workplace scandal was first uncovered by Pc Weekly in 2009, revealing the tales of seven subpostmasters and the issues they suffered attributable to Horizon accounting software program, which led to essentially the most widespread miscarriage of justice in British historical past (see beneath timeline of Pc Weekly articles concerning the scandal since 2009).