Alert contract for Post Office scandal firm Fujitsu criticised by peers

The decision to award a government contract to a firm at the centre of the Horizon Post Office scandal has been criticised as "immoral" by peers.

Horizon, the faulty accounting software developed for the Post Office by Fujitsu, led to more than 700 sub-postmasters being wrongly prosecuted.

The government said all contracts were awarded in line with regulations and transparency guidelines.

However, raising the issue in the House of Lords, Conservative peer Lord Arbuthnot, a longstanding campaigner for the victims of the Horizon scandal, questioned why Fujitsu had been granted the contract.

"Fujitsu's Horizon system caused sub-postmasters of this country to be shamefully accused of things they had not done," he said.

"Some went to prison, some took their own lives, all those accused were humiliated in the eyes of their own communities."

He added that Fujitsu had not given "a single word of apology" over its role.

Fellow Tory peer Lord Cormack said awarding the contract to Fujitsu was "completely wrong" and "immoral".

Labour peer Baroness Chakrabarti also said there were "basic decency and morality concerns" about the contract being granted while a public inquiry into the Horizon scandal was ongoing.

Meanwhile, Labour's Lord Harris said the involvement of Fujitsu could undermine public trust in the alert system.

In response, Cabinet Office Minister Baroness Neville-Rolfe said Fujitsu had played only a "small role" in the development of the UK's emergency alert system, which she described as a "critical tool" for warning people whose lives are at risk.

She agreed the impact of the Horizon scandal was "utterly horrendous" but said there was no link between the work Fujitsu did for the Post Office and its work on the alert system.

She added that it was important procurement processes were "open" and contracts were awarded "in accordance with the rules".

The government contract for the work runs until October 2025 and has a value of up to £5m, although Baroness Neville-Rolfe said Fujitsu had only been paid £1.6m in the past year.

Fujitsu declined to comment.

The UK's new alert system, which is designed to warn of extreme weather events, terror incidents or other life-threating emergencies, is due to be tested on Sunday, with a message sent to almost all smartphones.

The Horizon scandal has been described as one of the most widespread miscarriages of justice in UK legal history.

Between 2000 and 2014, the Post Office prosecuted 736 sub-postmasters and sub-postmistresses based on information from the faulty computer system.

Some went to prison following convictions for false accounting and theft, while others were financially ruined.

Fujitsu has not apologised but previously said it was cooperating with the ongoing public inquiry and was committed to providing "the fullest and most transparent information so that key lessons are learned".

Earlier this month the Post Office extended its contract with Fujitsu for Horizon for another year, in a deal worth £16.5m.

The Post Office told the Times it was "continuing to make improvements to Horizon and our current systems" and that its "contract changes" with Fujitsu would help to ensure "safeguards and stability for the significant planned changes ahead".