Netcompany is replacing Fujitsu on HM Revenue & Customs’ (HMRC’s) £245m post-Brexit Northern Ireland trading service, after the troubled supplier was dropped.
The Danish IT firm landed the HMRC Trader Support Service (TSS) as HMRC dropped Fujitsu on another contract amid heavy criticism of its deals with the scandal-stained supplier.
In May, Fujitsu was given the last rites on its massive datacentre contract with HMRC, when the government department announced a tender worth £500m designed to exit the supplier’s services. The 10-year contract, which begins next year, was a clear sign that HMRC was ready to break away from Fujitsu amid public pressure in relation to the Post Office scandal.
The revelation earlier this month of the loss of the TSS contract, which Fujitsu had been confident it could retain despite the fallout of the Post Office scandal, was another big blow.
Read more: Fujitsu’s role in the Post Office scandal: Everything you need to know.
The TSS is a free support service for businesses moving goods between Great Britain and Northern Ireland. This is part of the Windsor Framework, agreed in 2023 between the UK and European Union (EU), which reduced customs checks on goods staying in Northern Ireland while maintaining its access to the EU single market.
The initial five years of the contract is anticipated to be worth £94m, with the potential to reach £245m.
Ermis
The service will be built on Netcompany’s customs service, known as Ermis, which currently supports transit activities in HMRC Borders and Trade, facilitating over two million trade declarations annually in the UK. Across the EU, Ermis processes over 20 million declarations and 150 million transactions annually.
Netcompany as prime contractor will work with partners including HGS; McKinsey; the Chartered Institute of Export and International Trade; and Trade and Borders.
Richard Davies, UK country managing partner at Netcompany, said: “Our joint focus will be to reduce the time, effort and burden on users conducting trade between Great Britain and Northern Ireland. We value our deepening relationship with both HMRC and the trader community, and we are committed to making TSS more accessible for everyone using the service and ensuring this contract delivers genuine economic value for Northern Ireland and Great Britain.”
According to government figures, between the beginning of April and the end of September this year, Fujitsu received £110m from HMRC in return for IT services.
The figure for six months is more than double the total £48m cost of the Post Office scandal public inquiry between 2000 and 2024, and twice the estimated £50m cost of Operation Olympos, the national police investigation into the scandal. Invoices for desktop services, physical hosting and infrastructure, tablet computers and software licenses are included.
The Post Office scandal was first exposed by Computer Weekly in 2009, revealing the stories of seven subpostmasters and the problems they suffered due to the accounting software.