Described as a “parasite” on the UK authorities by Enterprise and Commerce Choose Committee chair Liam Byrne MP, Fujitsu, which rakes in a whole lot of hundreds of thousands of kilos’ price of presidency contracts annually, faces a considerable invoice for its central function within the Publish Workplace scandal. Nonetheless, the invoice is unlikely to completely replicate the price of its actions and inaction.
Fujitsu’s inaction is obvious. It failed to talk out about Horizon issues in help of the Publish Workplace’s place that there weren’t any, but it surely took motion when the Publish Workplace requested it to provide proof in courtroom to help its wrongful prosecutions of subpostmasters, which have been based mostly on information from Horizon.
Amid all of this, Fujitsu has made billions of kilos by way of the Horizon challenge that has run for almost 30 years. To not point out numerous different profitable authorities contracts. Byrne mentioned that by way of its refusal to pay something to this point, the IT provider is behaving like a “parasite” on the British state.
However as the federal government prepares to serve the Japanese IT big with a invoice for its contribution to the scandal, MPs’ concentrate on the £1.8bn determine for subpostmaster compensation might decrease expectations.
Throughout a Enterprise and Commerce Choose Committee listening to, this determine was referred to incessantly when Fujitsu’s European boss, Paul Patterson, was questioned concerning the firm’s monetary dedication.
Byrne requested how a lot of the £1.8bn Fujitsu would pay.
Patterson and onlookers would possibly take from the assembly that the quantity Fujitsu can pay can be a proportion of the £1.8bn, however general prices are a lot greater.
In March 2024, Byrne mentioned Fujitsu ought to pay half the prices. However half of what? If we’re speaking a proportion of prices, it will be significant that each one the prices are taken under consideration and never simply the price of subpostmaster compensation.
If the Publish Workplace and Fujitsu are equally guilty and should pay half every, which, taking into consideration subpostmaster compensation solely, that’s £900m every. That’s an eyewatering determine, however not almost as eyewatering as the whole value of the scandal. Even including among the simply quantifiable prices, it’s clear that taxpayers have paid a whole lot of hundreds of thousands of kilos extra.
Taxpayers on the hook for extra
The Publish Workplace’s authorized prices because of the scandal exceed £250m. Then there are the general public inquiry prices, which add as much as about £50m, and the nationwide police investigation into the scandal prices, which additionally equate to round £50m.
The Legal Instances Evaluate Fee’s vital work prices the taxpayer cash. And the Publish Workplace’s restructuring meant hiring and firing – folks have been let go at a price (often excessive within the public sector), and folks have been employed at a price.
Then there are the prices related to the IT upheaval that has occurred following the choice to dump Horizon, which triggered the scandal. Substitute initiatives have come and gone, as has hundreds of thousands of kilos of taxpayers’ cash, with nothing to indicate for it.
For instance, the Publish Workplace’s New Department IT (NBIT) challenge to roll out an in-house system was scrapped – after hundreds of thousands of kilos had been spent on it. The challenge was canned after a authorities report final yr discovered that budgets had ballooned from £180m to £1.1bn, with implementation delayed by as a lot as 5 years.
Prices associated to Horizon issues return a lot additional, nevertheless. Final yr, Laptop Weekly revealed that the Publish Workplace paid IBM about £10m when it deserted a Horizon substitute challenge in 2015.
As we stand at this time, by way of the Publish Workplace’s present Horizon substitute plan, it should pay almost half a billion kilos in whole for continued Horizon help, probably till 2033 (Lot 1), and a 12-year contract with a brand new system supplier (Lot 2).
Even the £1.8bn determine for monetary redress is prone to develop. It has already. In January 2022, Laptop Weekly broke information that the authorities put aside £1bn to settle monetary claims, however issues have modified for the reason that Publish Workplace scandal grew to become well-known.
Parasitic relationship
In the course of the current Enterprise and Commerce Choose Committee listening to, Fujitsu was described as a “parasite” on the UK state, raking in billions of kilos of taxpayers’ cash.
Fujitsu’s Patterson repeatedly acknowledged that the provider wouldn’t decide to a determine till Publish Workplace scandal inquiry chair Wyn Williams had made his remaining report and apportioned blame.
Patterson mentioned Fujitsu is just not a parasite on the British state and steered the federal government can stroll away from contracts at any time. Other than the truth that everyone knows large, multi-year, even multi-decade, IT contracts, notably within the public sector, are tough to interrupt away from.
Moreover, parasitic relationships in the primary see the parasite feed off and hurt the host, however there are additionally cases the place there may be some mutual profit. Might this be stopping the federal government from ditching Fujitsu or forcing it to pay extra?
Fujitsu has not precisely been squeaky clear for the reason that ITV drama put its malfeasance entrance and centre of public debate. It made a “hole gesture” in promising to not bid for public sector contracts till the Publish Workplace scandal public inquiry report, however this was so weighed down with caveats that the provider continues to empty the general public purse.
Moreover, in April 2024, simply weeks after imposing a public sector bidding ban on itself, Laptop Weekly revealed {that a} senior chief at Fujitsu was instructing workers on tips on how to get across the self-imposed restrictions.
Then, in October 2025, Laptop Weekly revealed that earlier in 2025, simply after Wyn Williams revealed his first “profoundly disturbing” public inquiry report, which included a suggestion that the scandal had brought on 13 suicides, a senior Fujitsu government advised workers the report was “not that unhealthy”.
Not that unhealthy for Fujitsu, perhaps. You couldn’t make it up.
In the course of the Fujitsu assembly in July final yr, the senior Fujitsu government advised colleagues it could in all probability be one other yr the place Fujitsu doesn’t “aggressively” go for brand spanking new public sector enterprise. Only a yr of ache?
Time to take accountability
I’ll shut with feedback made in October by campaigning peer James Arbuthnot, who on the time demanded Fujitsu pay £700m within the interim.
He mentioned it was 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 on nice hurt to hundreds of individuals, and will pay a large amount to compensate for this. It’s true that others have been additionally guilty – Publish Workplace managers, the authorized system, 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 it was not doing so,” added Arbuthnot.
“Fujitsu then colluded with the Publish Workplace in securing miscarriages of justice,” he mentioned. “I consider that it ought 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 fee now of £700m would possibly start to revive its popularity, however that needs to be a long-term course of, not helped by its silence up to now. It’s in its pursuits to be proactive about this if it desires to be in good grace with the British folks.”
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