Fujitsu Under Fire For Bidding On UK Public Sector Deals Despite Horizon Scandal Vow

The coordinator of a parliamentary campaign to end Fujitsu's grip on UK government contracting in the wake of the Post Office Horizon scandal has slammed the Japanese vendor's lack of transparency over its promise not to bid for new government work.

Liberal Democrat peer Lord Clement-Jones is jointly leading a group of 76 parliamentarians who have written an open letter to the Prime Minister calling for urgent action on Fujitsu's continued eligibility for government contracts.

In January 2024, Fujitsu emailed the UK government's commercial arm to confirm the company would pause bidding for public sector projects after the Post Office Horizon scandal came to wider public attention through a TV dramatization.

Paul Patterson, the director of Fujitsu Services Ltd, emailed the government on January 24 last year [PDF] to clarify that until an inquiry into the scandal was complete, there was "no limitation or caveat on our intention to pause bidding for work with new Government customers."

He said it would "only" continue bidding for public sector work if a new customer asked it to do so, or with existing customers "for example a contract extension or for similar work already undertaken by Fujitsu for that customer," or "for new opportunities with existing customers, where we have assessed and understood there to be a need [for] Fujitsu skills and capability."

Yet, in April this year, Fujitsu won a £125 million contract to build Northern Ireland's new land registry system, a contract for which it was bidding at the time Patterson wrote to the government. NI's Department of Finance is a new customer, and the NI government has confirmed it did not ask Fujitsu to continue bidding.

Responding to the fact that Patterson did not declare the ongoing Northern Ireland bid when he made his commitment to the government, Lord Clement-Jones told The Register Fujitsu's behavior was "scandalous."

Commending The Reg for revealing the Japanese vendor's bidding for government work after the Horizon scandal broke, Lord Clement-Jones said: "Fujitsu promised it would cease bidding for these contracts, then they were awarded a £125 million contract to build Northern Ireland's new land registry system."

The Reg has offered Fujitsu the opportunity to respond. A spokesperson previously claimed: "Fujitsu was named preferred bidder for this contract in 2023, before the voluntary restrictions came into place."

The Post Office began rolling out the legacy Horizon IT system for accounting in 1999, along with two subsequent upgrades. The EPOS and back-end finance system was first implemented by ICL, a UK tech firm majority-owned by Fujitsu in the 1990s and fully acquired in 1998. From 1999 until 2015, around 736 subpostmasters were wrongfully prosecuted and convicted over Horizon errors, devastating lives in the process.

A report submitted by the independent public inquiry into the computer scandal, which launched in 2021, found that Fujitsu and ICL knew or should have known about the defects causing errors in the Horizon system that contributed to the wrongful prosecution of hundreds of branch workers, 13 of whom committed suicide.

At the time, a Fujitsu Services Ltd spokesperson welcomed the first volume of the inquiry's report. "We have apologized for, and deeply regret, our role in subpostmasters' suffering, and we wish to reiterate that apology today. We hope for a swift resolution that ensures a just outcome for the victims," they said.

Along with Lord Clement-Jones, the group of 76 MPs and Lords writing to the Prime Minister include Labour MP Kate Osborne, Conservative peer Lord Arbuthnot, and Labour peer Baroness Ritchie.

Their letter said Fujitsu also continues re-tender negotiations with HMRC for the Trader Support Service (TSS), a lucrative £370 million contract to support post-Brexit trading arrangements between Great Britain and Northern Ireland.

• UK Post Office names public inquiry as risk to £410 million Horizon replacement project
• Fujitsu sorry for Post Office horror – but still cashing big UK govt checks
• Post Office and Fujitsu execs 'should have known' Horizon IT system was flawed
• Brit politicians question Fujitsu's continued role in public sector contracts

"It is unclear what due diligence safeguards are in place to prevent companies with a record of significant failures from continuing to secure major public contracts. This situation raises serious questions about the standards of fairness, accountability, and due diligence guiding public procurement in this country," the letter said.

The parliamentarians argue that continuing to award hundreds of millions of pounds in work to Fujitsu erodes public trust in government service. "Entrusting more critical infrastructure to Fujitsu – a company universally acknowledged to have committed a serious disservice – only worsens this crisis of confidence," the letter said.

The parliamentarians said the government should institute an immediate review of Fujitsu's eligibility to bid for critical public services, including its current re-tender for the Trader Support Service, "in light of its conduct and the reputational risk it poses to HM Government."

They stated that any government supplier involved in systemic failures, such as Fujitsu, should demonstrate meaningful remediation and cooperation with compensation processes as a condition of continued commercial engagement.

Fujitsu has acknowledged a moral obligation to compensate the victims of the Post Office Horizon scandal. In its closing submission to the Horizon inquiry, Fujitsu said it would engage with the government on its contribution to compensation costs. "The timing of this engagement will commence once this inquiry has published its findings," it said.

But in their letter, the parliamentarians said: "This is not only about money. It is about justice, accountability, and whether it is morally acceptable for Fujitsu to continue to profit from the public purse. The Post Office Horizon scandal destroyed lives. That injustice must not be compounded by the continued awarding of lucrative government contracts to Fujitsu."

A government spokesperson said: "We have been clear that those responsible for the Horizon scandal must be held to account. Fujitsu has committed to withdraw from bidding for contracts with new Government customers until the Post Office Inquiry concludes. We will not hesitate to take action, where appropriate, based on the final findings." ®