Fujitsu should “pay up” hundreds of millions of pounds in compensation immediately for its central role in the “ghastly fraud” that ruined the lives of innocent Post Office branch managers, leading campaigners have said.
Parliament was told that if the Japanese tech giant was an individual it would be facing years if not decades in jail for its active part in the Horizon IT scandal which saw subpostmasters “maliciously prosecuted”.
The firm continued to enjoy lucrative extensions to government contracts bankrolled by the public while the taxpayer funded payouts to victims of what is believed to be Britain’s biggest miscarriage of justice, Westminster heard.
The company has already acknowledged it has a “moral obligation” to contribute to compensation, pending the outcome of the public inquiry led by Sir Wyn Williams.
Sir Wyn Williams (Post Office Horizon IT Inquiry/PA)
But while ministers said it was too soon to decide on Fujitsu’s final contribution, they added an interim payment by the firm being demanded by critics would be “very welcome and very appropriate in these circumstances”.
The criticism of Fujitsu was levelled during a debate in the House of Lords on the compensation scheme for which the Government has so far set aside £1.8 billion.
By the start of the year around £594 million had been paid to more than 3,800 claimants, and by the end of January an extra £69 million had been allocated to a further 500 people.
Hundreds of subpostmasters were wrongly convicted of stealing after Fujitsu’s defective Horizon accounting system made it appear as though money was missing at their branches.
The Post Office also forced at least 4,000 branch managers to pay back cash based on the flawed data.
Some victims were sent to prison or financially ruined, others were shunned by their communities, and some took their own lives.
The long-running battle for justice accelerated dramatically after ITV broadcast the drama Mr Bates Vs The Post Office, which highlighted the scandal.
Labour former MP Kevan Jones, who now sits in the upper chamber as Lord Beamish, has been a long-standing champion for the subpostmasters.
He told Parliament: “This scandal was not by mistake or failure. This was a conspiracy, a cover-up.
“It involved Government, it involved ministers, it involved the Post Office and it involved Fujitsu.”
He said: “Not only did Fujitsu cover up the fact the system was full of bugs and could be remotely accessed, they also took an active part in the prosecution of subpostmasters.”
While Fujitsu had committed to make a contribution to compensate victims once the public inquiry had reported, Lord Beamish said: “Today, there has been no money paid to victims from Fujitsu.
“And this is a company, though, that is still making multimillion-pound profits from government contracts.”
He added: “They said they weren’t going to bid for new contracts, but what they are doing is extending existing contracts and that is at the same time as the taxpayer is paying out nearly £600 million in compensation to victims and many victims are still waiting for compensation.
“I think Fujitsu are hiding behind the public inquiry.”
He went on: “They know the evidence they have given to the public inquiry. There’s nothing going to be revealed from the public inquiry findings that we don’t know now.
“I suggest they should make in an interim payment of at least £300 million now to cover the cost of victims.”
Lord Beamish said: “Fujitsu need to pay up. It needs to make sure that it will not keep taking money from the UK taxpayer while it makes no financial contribution to this scandal.”
Lord Arbuthnot, who played a pivotal role in exposing the scandal, said: “Let’s not forget what Fujitsu did. ICL, the company that produced Horizon and which was bought by Fujitsu, provided a computer programme to the Post Office which they knew was seriously flawed.
He added: “Fujitsu had a duty under their contract to provide evidence for prosecutions that was admissible and accurate. And they did help the Post Office prosecute the subpostmasters but with evidence which was false.
“Knowing of the flaws in the Horizon system they told the courts that there were no such flaws.
“Moreover, Fujitsu had a large operation altering the accounts of the subpostmasters without the knowledge of the subpostmasters. They told everyone that they could not alter those accounts despite carrying out that extensive operation doing exactly that.
“So Fujitsu did much more than stand idly by while the subpostmasters were maliciously prosecuted. It was an active, knowing and essential participant in the whole ghastly fraud.
“If it were not a company but an individual, it would be facing years, or possibly decades, in prison.
“Yet it is a company, and one on which the government have become unacceptably dependent. Each year in which the government extend some contract or other, saying that there is no alternative, they should ask themselves, ‘If this were Prisoner Smith in cell block J4, would we really be giving him a contract worth tens of millions of pounds?’
“So what are Fujitsu are doing about this? What money have they offered? As we have heard from Lord Beamish – nothing.
“They have accepted their moral obligation but the taxpayer is paying out hundreds of millions of pounds now.
“There needs to be an interim payment from Fujitsu now.
“Lord Beamish has suggested £300 million – £700 million would be less than half the cost that the taxpayer is currently estimated to bear.
“If it does not do that, why should the Government offer it further extensions of its existing contracts, still less grant it new contracts?”
Responding to the debate, business minister Baroness Jones of Whitchurch said: “The Government of course welcome Fujitsu’s acknowledgement of a moral obligation to contribute to the cost of the scandal and continue to talk regularly to Fujitsu about this. The Post Office minister will be meeting Fujitsu’s Europe CEO shortly.”
She added: “I would say that it is too soon to decide on Fujitsu’s final contribution to the costs of the scandal but I agree that an interim contribution would be very welcome and appropriate in these circumstances.”
A Fujitsu spokesperson said: “We will be working with Government regarding Fujitsu’s contribution to compensation, and are engaged with officials to progress formal discussions.
“We hope for a swift resolution that ensures a just outcome for the victims.”
