Put up Workplace scandal’s oldest sufferer requires whole ban on Fujitsu

Fujitsu needs to be banned from all UK authorities contracts, in keeping with the Put up Workplace scandal’s oldest sufferer.

Former subpostmaster Betty Brown, who turned 93 at the moment (13 January), made the decision after watching Fujitsu’s European boss, Paul Patterson, seem at a latest Enterprise and Commerce Choose Committee listening to.

Throughout the assembly, Fujitsu was described by an MP as a “parasite” on the British state. The provider, which is on the centre of the Put up Workplace scandal, makes billions of kilos from authorities IT contracts, however has but to pay a penny in the direction of the massive prices of the scandal.

Brown, along with her late husband Oswall, ran branches in Stanley, County Durham, from the Nineteen Eighties. Between them, that they had 79 years of service to the Put up Workplace, however they misplaced their department in 2003 after utilizing their financial savings to cowl unexplained shortfalls displaying on Fujitsu’s error-prone Horizon system.

She referred to as on the federal government to cease giving Fujitsu any type of work.

“Sufficient is sufficient,” stated the previous subpostmaster, who just lately obtained an OBE. “Fujitsu ought to cease being permitted to be concerned in any new state contracts, in no matter kind, till it has settled with the subpostmasters and their households. And any contract extensions or renewals needs to be likewise banned.”

“Two years in the past, Paul Patterson volunteered to curtail Fujitsu from bidding for additional work – but this dedication has been conveniently forgotten, and within the meantime, Fujitsu have discovered all method of how of quietly persevering with to tackle state contracts.”

Learn extra: Fujitsu’s function within the Put up Workplace scandal: All the things it’s worthwhile to know

In March 2024, for instance, quickly after Fujitsu’s self-imposed ban on bidding for UK authorities contracts, Laptop Weekly revealed leaked inner communications that confirmed Fujitsu was nonetheless focusing on about £1.3bn price of public sector contracts within the UK over 12 months. Additional leaked paperwork revealed that Fujitsu instructed employees on tips on how to get round its self-imposed ban.

It received practically £500m price of UK public sector contracts within the monetary yr Might 2024 to April 2025, regardless of the self-imposed ban on bidding for presidency contracts instigated in January 2024.

Picture: AB Brown

“Sufficient is sufficient. Fujitsu ought to cease being permitted to be concerned in any new state contracts till it has settled with the subpostmasters and their households. Contract extensions or renewals needs to be likewise banned”

Betty Brown, Put up Workplace sufferer

In a leaked recording of a gathering in July 2025, a senior Fujitsu govt confidently stated he anticipated issues to get again to regular for the provider’s UK public sector enterprise. He instructed colleagues it might in all probability be one other yr the place Fujitsu doesn’t “aggressively” go for brand spanking new public sector enterprise.

He instructed them that as a result of Fujitsu has been successful enterprise within the UK public sector for a very long time, it is aware of numerous folks and understands the area.

Brown stated: “I’ve to ask, when is Fujitsu going to get off the pot? In any case, it was Fujitsu who designed and offered this incompetent Horizon system to the Put up Workplace.”

Final week, Put up Workplace scandal sufferer and campaigner Lee Castleton referred to as on Fujitsu boss Patterson to cease being a “bystander” and act like a “chief”.

Former subpostmaster Jo Hamilton, who was wrongly convicted of false accounting after encountering issues with Horizon, voiced her perception that nothing would change. “Nothing adjustments and nothing will,” she stated. “None of them care, together with Whitehall. We’re naive if we expect we are able to disgrace them into it.”

Laptop Weekly first uncovered the scandal in 2009, revealing the tales of seven subpostmasters and the issues they suffered on account of the Horizon system (see beneath a timeline of all articles since 2009).