Fujitsu is set to see its relationship with the Post Office extended further as it takes longer than anticipated to unwrap the controversial 30-year relationship.
Slower-than-expected progress transitioning from Fujitsu has cast doubt on whether the supplier’s contract end date, when Accenture was due to take over the running of Horizon, will be met.
Fujitsu’s current contract with the Post Office will expire in March 2027, but there was an option to extend written into the last agreement that, due to slower than expected progress, looks more likely to be taken up.
In November 2025, the deal was extended 12 months to March 2027, costing an additional £41m, which was criticised by Post Office scandal victims and campaigners.
Another extension was always possible, with that tender including an option for up to another 12 months, which sources now believe will inevitably be taken up. The tender said: “… Based on the transition plan from replacement supplier, further extension of 6-12 months may be required.”
According to sources, things are also progressing slower than expected on the transfer away from Fujitsu. Even if just for months, an extension to Fujitsu’s relationship with the Post Office, which began in the mid-1990s when it took over ICL, would mean millions more pounds being paid to Fujitsu.
There was also a delay in signing the contract for the software that will replace Horizon. As revealed by Computer Weekly, the signing of the Post Office’s contract with OneView Commerce, a cloud-based electronic point of sale (EPOS) software supplier, was delayed six times and for nearly three months due to a legal dispute with the losing bidder, Escher. The contract was initially set to be formally signed on 3 June, but was not signed off until 24 August.
A Post Office spokesperson said: “The Post Office signed a contract with Accenture in June to take on the day-to-day running of Horizon from Fujitsu. Work to transition the existing Horizon system over to Accenture is continuing collaboratively and at pace. In addition, working with our partners, our plans relating to what our new system would entail and how it could be rolled out across the network are ahead of schedule at present. The Post Office has previously stated to Computer Weekly that ‘Fujitsu will be completely removed from its Post Office contract by the summer of 2027’. That remains our position.”
The Horizon replacement project was first planned almost exactly seven years ago, after the Post Office admitted defeat in the Alan Bates and Others versus Post Office group litigation, when it was proved Horizon errors caused the account shortfalls that subpostmasters were blamed and punished for. But nothing really moved, and it was only after the ITV dramatisation of the Post Office scandal in January 2024, amid public outrage, that things started to happen.
This culminated in the £1.8bn New Branch IT (NBIT) project, but this ran into trouble and was eventually axed in May 2024, and was replaced by the current project, which sees an off-the-shelf EPOS system replace Horizon in a £169.2m contract with OneView Commerce, with Accenture providing outsourcing services through a £322.8m contract.
There have been multiple Fujitsu extensions worth nearly £200m since 2019.
Meaningless apologies
With the Post Office scandal public inquiry’s final conclusions expected early next year, the timing of an extention could also be highly controversial. Fujitsu is expected to be heavily criticized in the report, which will examine the causes of the scandal in detail.
An initial inquiry report that looked at the human impact of the scandal, which was covered in Phase 1, found among many disturbing impacts that it could not be ruled out that 13 suicides were caused by the scandal.
Despite its repeated apologies, Fujitsu has done little to convince victims of its regret and intention to make amends.
Following the publication of the inquiry’s first report, in summer 2025, Computer Weekly revealed that a senior Fujitsu executive told staff in a meeting that the report was “not that bad”.
His recorded remarks about the devastating inquiry findings are at odds with Fujitsu’s apologetic statements. In stark contrast the report, which was published in July 2025, they were described as “profoundly disturbing” by the Post Office Horizon scandal public inquiry chair, Wyn Williams.
Furthermore, in April 2024, just after the scandal and Fujitsu’s role in it became wide public knowledge, the supplier promised, as a gesture, not to bid for government contracts. But through leaked comms, Computer Weekly revealed how the supplier’s staff were instructed how to bid for government contracts during the self-imposed ban.
Adding to the frustration and anger of victims, the supplier has repeatedly refused to commit to an amount it will pay towards the billions of pounds in costs associated with a scandal it was partly to blame for, waiting for the publication of the inquiry report.
Read more: Fujitsu’s role in the Post Office scandal: Everything you need to know
Almost immediately after the ITV drama about the scandal made it headline news, opening it up to the wider public, the then Fujitsu European boss said the supplier had a “moral obligation” to pay towards the costs of the scandal.
But an extention to the contract could see millions of pounds of taxpayer money heading Fujitsu’s way before the supplier pays a penny towards the cost of the scandal.
If an extension is required, it could come around the time of the main public inquiry report. This will look at phases 2 to 7 of the public inquiry, which will include forensic examination of the part Fujitsu and its staff played in what is often referred to as the widest miscarriage of justice in British history.
Nothing surprises us
Former subpostmaster Scott Darlington, who had his wrongful conviction for false accounting overturned in 2021, said nothing shocks him anymore when it comes to the scandal.
“There are so many things that are hard to believe, this is just another one to pile on top,” he said.
Pete Murray, a former subpostmaster based in Northwest England, who lost his business and had his life shattered as a result of the Post Office scandal, said: “There is no surprise if the contract gets extended. It’s just the same old story.”
Former subpostmaster Jo Hamilton, who had a wrongful conviction for false accounting overturned alongside Darlington, agreed that nothing comes as a surprise after years fighting the Post Office. “The whole thing is just a mess, but we are used to it, so no surprises,” she said.
