Mr Bates: ‘I can see Fujitsu taking as much as they can out of the whole place before all this finishes’
Hero Alan Bates says it is “absolute madness” the computer giant behind the Horizon Post Office scandal is raking in tens of millions more of public money while victims are left waiting for compensation
Japanese firm Fujitsu has been slammed after one of Britain’s biggest miscarriages of justice, which saw hundreds of innocent subpostmasters wrongly convicted.
Yet while victims still face a battle for payouts – with some shamefully offered a fraction of their claims – Fujitsu has not only been allowed to continue running the much-derided Horizon system for the Post Office, but given contract extensions. The latest, a one year addition in April this year, was worth £42million. Accounts out this week showed revenues at UK-based Fujitsu Services topped £1billion last year, as it swung from a £121million loss to a £15million profit.
The boss of the Post Office, Neil Brocklehurst, told the Mirror the complexity of the system means it will still be using Horizon until 2027 – during which time Fujitsu is likely to carry on getting fat fees.
Mr Bates, one of hundreds wrongly accused of theft because of the faulty Horizon system, said victims were “at the end of the line.” He went on: “For the government to keep throwing more and more taxpayers’ money to prop up an aging and unrepairable software programme seems absolute madness. I can see them (Fujitsu) taking as much as they can out of the whole place before all this finishes.”
Mr Bates, whose decades-long fight for justice was the basis for hit ITV drama Mr Bates vs The Post Office, said the Horizon system should have been replaced years ago. “Haven’t we got any other software companies in Britain?” he added. “I do wonder at times what Fujitsu has to hold a gun to the government’s head all the time to get these contracts.” He said it was for “Fujitsu’s conscience” whether it continued to take the money, and that “morally” the company should already be contributing to postmasters’ compensation payouts.
Interviewed by the Mirror, Mr Brocklehurst said: “I’d love to get off Horizon tomorrow but it isn’t just one thing, it is about 80 different odd bits of technology plumbed together. This is very, very complex, we have to move at the appropriate pace. What we can’t do is move too fast and break things and put us in a worse position than we are in now. The work is ongoing, we are going to move as fast as we can, but in a responsible way.”
An attempt to replace Horizon with one built by IBM failed in 2016, at a cost of £40million. Since 1999, the Post Office has spent £2.5billion on contracts with Fujitsu since 1999, including more than £600million on extension contracts since attempts to find new suppliers started in 2012.
That is in addition to other lucrative taxpayer-funded contracts. According to Computer Weekly, the taxman was Fujitsu’s biggest UK government customer, with HMRC paying the firm £310million in the year to March.
Last autumn’s Budget saw the government set aside £1.8billion for compensation payments for Horizon victims.
Mr Brocklehurst said it was hopeful of announcing the timing of when it planned to ditch Fujitsu, and replace Horizon, in the next couple of months. But he conceded that Fujitsu’s contract would be extended again, beyond next April, adding: “We will not be off Horizon, I think, for another 18 months or so.” On if it could be into 2027, he said: “I think so.”
The Post Office prosecuted around 700 sub-postmasters between 1999 and 2015 for theft, fraud and false accounting over supposed cash shortfalls in branches reported by the Horizon system. A report found more than 13 people may have taken their own lives as a result. The convictions were overturned by Parliament last year.
Widow Marion Holmes, whose husband Peter was one of 39 subpostmasters to have convictions quashed at the Court of Appeal in 2021, said it was wrong for Fujitsu to still be paid. “No they shouldn’t – it is wrong they are getting,” said Ms Holmes, 83. “Fujitsu need to put their hand in their pocket and pay some of the compensation. Fujitsu were wrong but the people who shafted the postmasters were the Post Office.”
Mr Holmes , who worked as a subpostmaster at Jesmond Post Office in Newcastle for 13 years, blamed an error in the Fujitsu’s Horizon accounting system for a £46,049 shortfall. He died of a brain tumour in 2015 aged 68.
A Fujitsu spokesperson said: “We are focused on supporting the Post Office in their plans for a new service delivery model, so branches can continue to deliver key services to the public.”
Fujitsu’s accounts says, following the conclusion of the Horizon Inquiry, it expects to “take appropriate and proportionate measures” on a “contribution towards the UK government’s compensation schemes.” Until then, it has paused bidding for new government contracts.
The government has approved improvements to compensation schemes, a new appeals process and funded legal advice.
Mr Brocklehurst said postmasters’ ongoing fight for compensation concerned him “hugely.” He added: “Before I took the role I, like everyone else, watched the ITV programme and was horrified. At a human level, it is impossible not to just feel for the victims. It is absolutely horrendous what people have been through. We are working – and it is a real focus of the team – to streamline the process (for compensation).”
He said: “I have brought in to transfer the Post Office but we can’t fully do that until postmasters have got their redress, until those issues have been addressed.” His comments came as a consultation on the future of the Post Office closed last week, with the government expected to publish a response within 12 weeks.
The Post Office, in its submission, proposed becoming a “one-stop shop” where customers can collect prescriptions as well as sending letters and parcels, calling it a once-in-15-year opportunity.
Mr Brocklehurst insisted it was like “any modern retailer”, despite criticism about the condition of some of its 11,500 strong network and the massive challenges it faces. “I think the Post Office has an enormous set of strengths that other modern retailers would kill for,” he claimed. “We have the widest network across the UK, each of our branches staffed by local postmasters that have got a wealth of knowledge and know their customers.”
He admitted the Post Office brand had been damaged by the Horizon scandal, but said trust in postmasters themselves remained very high. “I think it has an incredible opportunity to remain at the heart of communities but absolutely needs to evolve,” Mr Brocklehurst said, adding: “We can be the hub of the high street.”
The Post Office split from Royal Mail in 2012. And unlike Royal Mail, which was controversially privatised by the Tories and is now owned by a Czech billionaire, the Post Office remains in public hands.
Mr Brocklehurst acknowledged that “without significant government support” it is unlikely the Post Office would now “exist”. The government’s own consultation found almost 6,000 Post Offices are currently no longer profitable. The Post Office says it wants to keep the network at 11,500, with the turnaround plan designed to put it on a “sound financial footing”. The money for the overhaul would have to come from the taxpayer – a tough ask given the state of the public finances – although Mr Brocklehurst is confident the funding is available.