Fujitsu won £1.4m in public contracts since pledge to stop bidding

Fujitsu, the firm at the heart of the Post Office scandal, has been given £1.4m in public sector contracts since it pledged to stop bidding for them.

The technology company voluntarily agreed in January not to bid for any further awards until the Post Office inquiry had been concluded.

However, the commitment did not cover any extensions to existing contracts, nor did it exclude a scenario in which the government asked them to.

According to figures from government procurement data provider Tussell, reported by the Financial Times, the Japanese group has won six public sector contracts worth around £1.4m since January, with two being awarded as recently as September.

Among the contracts is a £213,038 deal to provide IT software to the Ministry of Defence and a £11,472 contract to supply data-processing technology to Lincolnshire’s police and crime commissioner.

Over 900 Post Office branch managers were wrongly convicted of charges including fraud and theft based on Fujitsu’s faulty Horizon software data, between 1999 and 2015, in what has been dubbed the biggest miscarriage of justice in UK history.

The scandal resulted in a major public inquiry. Hundreds of subpostmasters faced prison sentences and lived for many years with criminal records.

It came to widespread attention following years of reporting in January, with the release of the TV adaptation ‘Mr Bates vs the Post Office’, in January.

Fujitsu currently holds 33 public sector contracts, worth around £4.5bn over their lifetime. The group was approached for comment.

Speaking to the Financial Times, Richard Trinder, chair of the campaign group Voice of the Postmaster, said it was “criminal” that Fujitsu was still being considered for any government contract in the UK.

He said the company should pay compensation worth as much as half of the £1.8bn the UK government has earmarked for the victims.

A government spokesperson said: “We have been clear that those responsible for the Horizon scandal must be held accountable.

“Before any further action can be taken, we must wait for the Horizon inquiry to conclude.

“Fujitsu sets its own boundaries for bidding on public contracts. As with all companies, we are keeping Fujitsu’s conduct and commercial performance under review.”