Fujitsu boss: We let society down over Post Office role

Image source, Getty Images

The boss of Fujitsu’s European arm says it has “clearly let society down, and the sub-postmasters down” for its role in the Post Office scandal.

Paul Patterson admitted there were “bugs, errors and defects” with the Horizon software “right from the very start”.

Mr Patterson also reiterated the firm’s apology for its part in the scandal.

The government recently announced a new law to exonerate victims after an ITV drama gained huge attention.

Between 1999 and 2015, the Post Office privately prosecuted hundreds of sub-postmasters and postmistresses based on Fujitsu’s faulty Horizon computer software.

Some went to prison, others have died in the time it has taken to seek justice and redress. To date, only 93 wrongful convictions have been overturned while thousands are still waiting for compensation settlements more than 20 years on.

Following up on his appearance earlier this week in front of the Business and Trade select committee, Mr Patterson said that Fujitsu would “engage with government” on compensation for the sub-postmasters affected.

Sam Stein KC, representing a number of sub-postmasters for the law firm Howe & Co, asked: “Why did it take so long for Fujitsu to decide it had a moral obligation to put its hands in its pockets and provide money, not just apologies?”

Mr Patterson replied: “This is a decades-old miscarriage which started a long, long time ago and involves many, many people in organisations in that.

“I think Fujitsu more recently, as we’ve understood more, we have clearly let society down and the sub-postmasters down.

“I think we had our obligations to the Post Office to be at the front of everything we were doing and that was wrong.”

During the hearing on Friday, Mr Patterson, who joined Fujitsu in 2010 and is now director of the firm’s European arm, was also asked when the company became aware that the evidence the Post Office was relying on to prosecute sub-postmasters had been affected by the bugs, errors and defects (BEDs) in Horizon.

He said that the company became aware “latterly” that this faulty evidence was being used for prosecutions.

When the inquiry counsel Jason Beer KC followed up to ask why those BEDs were not raised in the witness statements provided by Fujitsu employees to the Post Office for prosecutions, Mr Patterson said: “I do not know why.

“On a personal level, I am surprised that that detail was not included,” he added, before confirming that some references to these BEDs were edited out of evidence “by others”.

Mr Patterson said that it was: “Shameful, appalling – my understanding of how our laws work in this country [is] that all of the evidence should have been put in front of the sub-postmaster, that the Post Office was relying on to prosecute them.”

At the start of the Friday hearing, the Fujitsu director reiterated his apology to sub-postmasters and their families, describing the scandal as an “appalling miscarriage of justice”.

He said the technology giant was determined to “get to the truth wherever it lays”.

Mr Patterson added that he had a “great deal of respect” for those affected, and that he would be happy to meet any former sub-postmasters or sub-postmistresses who would like to.

Speaking to the BBC on Friday, former sub-postmaster Lee Castleton said that at the end of the saga he was searching for accountability.

“It’s not for me to judge people – it’s for professional people to judge people. But I’d like them to be judged.”

The statutory inquiry, led by Sir Wyn Williams, began in 2021 and was established to ensure there was a “public summary of the failings which occurred with the Horizon IT system at the Post Office”, which subsequently led to the wrongful convictions of sub-postmasters.

The global chief executive of Fujitsu, Takahito Tokita, also apologised for the firm’s part in the scandal earlier this week.

Making his first public comments on the scandal to the BBC at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Mr Tokita said: “This is a big issue, which Fujitsu takes very seriously.”

When asked if he would apologise, he added: “Yes, of course. Fujitsu has apologised for the impact on the postmasters’ lives and their families.”

The UK government has continued to award billions of pounds worth of public contracts to Fujitsu even after information about the scandal involving Horizon emerged.

But on Thursday, Minister Alex Burghart said the technology firm had written to the Cabinet Office to say that it would not bid for public contracts while the inquiry was ongoing.