Fujitsu rules itself out of UK public contract bids during Post Office inquiry

Fujitsu has told the government it will not bid for public contracts while the inquiry into the Post Office scandal continues.

Minister Alex Burghart said the technology firm had written to the Cabinet Office to inform it of the decision.

Fujitsu developed the Horizon software used by the Post Office which was later found to be faulty.

It is linked to one of the UK's most widespread miscarriages of justice.

More than 900 sub-postmasters and postmistresses were prosecuted after faulty software incorrectly made it look like money was missing from their branches.

Mr Burghart told the House of Commons on Thursday: "This morning (the) Cabinet Office received a letter from Fujitsu voluntarily undertaking not to bid for government contracts whilst the inquiry is ongoing, unless of course the government ask them to."

The government has continued to award billions of pounds worth of public contracts to Fujitsu even after it emerged that faults in its Horizon accountancy software made it look like there were shortfalls at Post Office branches.

It led to hundreds of branch managers being wrongly prosecuted for theft and false accounting.

He said that the Post Office knew about "bugs and errors" in the Horizon software early on. However, the Post Office carried on with the prosecutions.

At a hearing before MPs, Mr Patterson also said that Fujitsu had a "moral obligation" to contribute to compensation for sub-postmasters wrongly prosecuted as a result of its faulty IT software.