Awarding multimillion pound government contracts to the Japanese firm at the heart of the Post Office’s IT scandal is “morally wrong”, the government has been told.
Critics in the House of Lords argued it was “appalling” Fujitsu continued to secure lucrative work, including a £48m deal to upgrade the police national computer (PNC), despite its role in what has been branded the biggest miscarriage of justice in British legal history.
However, ministers argued there was “basically no alternative”.
More than 700 sub-postmasters and sub-postmistresses (SPMs) were wrongly prosecuted for theft, fraud and false accounting because of the Post Office’s defective Horizon accounting system, installed and maintained by the technology giant, which had “bugs, defects and errors” from the outset.
Many have subsequently had their criminal convictions overturned.
Earlier this month at an inquiry into the scandal, led by retired high court judge Sir Wyn Williams, Fujitsu’s legal representative apologised for the firm’s part in the “sub-postmasters’ suffering”.
Raising the issue at Westminster, Liberal Democrat Baroness Ludford said: “The government have awarded contracts to Fujitsu of over £3.5bn since 2013, including nearly £500m this year, of which £48m was on the police national computer.
“Considering that Fujitsu’s Horizon software was at the heart of the Post Office sub-postmaster scandal, why do the government believe that Fujitsu software has the necessary integrity for the critical data in the PNC?
“How is a business as usual approach on the award of contracts before the official Post Office inquiry concludes prudent?
“Lastly, how does this government largesse give Fujitsu any incentive to contribute to the massive compensation cost for sub-postmasters, which is set to fall on the taxpayer?”
Responding, Home Office minister Lord Sharpe of Epsom said: “The police national computer has been hosted on Fujitsu mainframe technology for over 30 years, and existing Fujitsu-leased hardware technology would not have been viable to use beyond March 2022.
“It required urgent replacement, which is why Fujitsu was selected.
“The market engagement exercise held in 2020 to review options to replace the Fujitsu hardware and support found no viable alternative solutions, and that is why Fujitsu received this contract – which, I should also stress, is making up the difference between now and when the new police national computer comes into operation. I could go on, but there was basically no alternative.”
Tory peer Lord Polak said: “The words that come to my mind are ‘scandalous’, ‘miscarriage of justice’, ‘broken lives’, ‘families financially ruined’ – and yet Fujitsu has paid nothing.
“Talking has gone on long enough. I know there are legal cases, but should not the government stop any contracts to Fujitsu? It is just morally wrong.”
Lord Sharpe said: “He is right to point out that we are trying to get to the bottom of the Horizon issue.
“That is why Sir Wyn Williams has been tasked to hold his statutory inquiry. Fujitsu is a core participant and is co-operating fully. Accountability depends on evidence, so I think it is proper to let Sir Wyn hear it before judging any possible consequences.”
Referring to the PNC upgrade deal, Labour frontbencher Lord Kennedy of Southwark said: “Was any consideration given by the government to the public perception of awarding such a vital contract to a company with such a shocking record?”
He added: “It is appalling that this company can get anywhere near another government contract.”
Lord Sharpe said: “It was the only viable alternative. Other companies were invited in and, for reasons most of which were around the time it would take to implement new systems, Fujitsu offered the only solution.
“Of course, I agree with the public perception argument, however, I do not think we had any alternative.”
