Fujitsu’s excuse for holding back its contribution to the costs of the Post Office scandal could be about to expire, along with its ineffective moratorium on bidding for government contracts.
Fujitsu has clung to the excuse that it will pay what it owes after the publication of the final Post Office scandal public inquiry report and it has stuck to its word on that. In contrast, while it also promised not to bid for government contracts until the inquiry reported, caveats have meant it has been business as usual.
According to the Law Gazette, Emma Price, counsel to the Post Office Horizon IT Inquiry, said the report’s final volumes are in the “final writing stages” and will be published ‘very soon”.
Fujitsu made two significant commitments in the aftermath of ITV’s drama in January 2024 about the scandal. It declared that it had a moral duty to pay towards the cost of the scandal and promised not to bid for government contracts.
On holding back its contribution, a Fujitsu spokesperson said: “We believe it is the right thing to do for Fujitsu to contribute to compensation and, as we have consistently stated, this will be agreed with government after Wyn Williams has published the findings of his inquiry. Our conversations with government regarding our contribution are ongoing.”
Fujitsu has been less rigid on its self-imposed ban on bidding for government project. In April 2024, just a couple of months after the supplier banned itself from bidding for government contracts, Computer Weekly reported that the company’s then public sector boss was instructing staff on how to get around the self-imposed ban.
Read more: Post Office Horizon scandal explained: Everything you need to know.
Fujitsu was not held back by its ban. According to market watcher Tussell, between May 2024 and April 2025, Fujitsu made sales worth £453m to the UK public sector – more than in the previous 12 months – and it has continued to do so. Just this past week, Fujitsu has won the contract to support the Emergency Alerts Services, which will initially cost £9m for three years, with an option to extend by 12 more months.
Also this week, the Post Office announced another extension to its controversial contract with Fujitsu. It said this is the last short contract it will have with Fujitsu for Horizon, but with the previous 12-month contract costing £40m, this extension – likely six months – could cost £20m. This will be the third since the scandal became wide public knowledge after the TV drama in January 2024.
Fujitsu has won hundreds of millions of pounds worth of government contracts with organisations such as HMRC, the Met Police and the Post Office since it imposed its bidding ban. In the summer, Fujitsu was confirmed as a supplier on four government procurement frameworks by the Government Commercial Agency (GCA), worth more than £54bn in total.
Meanwhile, the cost of the scandal for UK taxpayers is now counted in billions of pounds.
Peer James Arbuthnot, who has campaigned alongside subpostmasters for nearly two decades, said: “The government is behaving as though the country is over a barrel to Fujitsu, because nobody else could do the work they do. I very much doubt that this is true.
“Even if it were true, we as a country should not be doing business with a company that colludes in such terrible miscarriages of justice. By doing so we are sending the message that ethics don’t matter. This is not who we are, and the government needs to get a grip of this matter that is fundamental to our character.”
The getaway driver
Fujitsu’s Horizon software was at the centre of the scandal, with subpostmasters blamed and punished for accounting shortfalls caused by software errors. It is today widely regarded as one of the biggest miscarriages of justice in history, with around a thousand people wrongly convicted of crimes, with many sent to prison, and thousands more having their lives turned over through financial hardship.
Fujitsu knew the system had errors that could cause unexplained losses, but gave evidence in court during prosecutions of subpostmasters claiming Horizon was robust and could not have caused the shortfalls that the subpostmasters were being blamed for.
When forced, Fujitsu’s then European boss, Paul Patterson, admitted at a Post Office Horizon scandal public inquiry hearing in 2024 that the IT company missed an opportunity to take action and prevent subpostmasters from being convicted.
Read more: Fujitsu’s role in the Post Office scandal: Everything you need to know.
Despite requests for up-front contributions, Fujitsu is playing a waiting game. The public inquiry’s first report was played down by a senior Fujitsu executive in an internal meeting last year.
In October 2025, after the inquiry chair published its first report, which linked Fujitsu’s software problems to 13 suicides, a recording heard by Computer Weekly revealed that a senior executive at the supplier said the report “was not that bad”. He has since left the supplier.
The first report, which was published in July 2025, was described as “profoundly disturbing” by the Post Office Horizon scandal public inquiry chair, Wyn Williams. It focused on the human impact of the scandal, which came in phase one of the inquiry.
When the second part of the public inquiry report is published next year, Fujitsu will be exposed to huge public pressure. The second, more substantial report will cover the remaining six phases of the inquiry. Pertinent to Fujitsu’s role, the remaining phases covered issues including the Horizon IT system’s history, its operation, and legal actions against subpostmasters.
Sir Alan Bates, the former subpostmaster who led the fight against the Post Office and government which led to the public inquiry, said: “I would like to think the report when published will stop people hiding behind the inquiry, but it won’t because everyone will say, ‘We need months to read and review it.’ It’s just the next stage really, the next step on the way to the Metropolitan Police investigation report.”
The Post Office scandal was first exposed by Computer Weekly in 2009, revealing the stories of seven subpostmasters, including Bates, and the problems they suffered due to Horizon accounting software.
