Tech giant behind Post nightmare may have to stump up, says minister

TECH giant Fujitsu may have to fork out millions for compensation for sub-postmasters and postmistresses wrongly convicted of fraud in the Horizon computer scandal, a Cabinet minister suggested today.

- Nicholas Cecil & Jitendra Joshi

The Post Office is wholly owned by the Government so taxpayers are meeting at least part of the compensation bill for what has been described as the biggest miscarriage of justice in British history. But Work and Pensions Secretary Mel Stride stressed that it “won’t necessarily just be the taxpayer” who is “on the hook for this money”.

MPs have called for Fujitsu, the firm behind the faulty Horizon accounting software that made it look as if money was missing from branches, to help compensate wronged Post Office staff.

Mr Stride told LBC Radio: “To the extent that that culpability rests upon the shoulders of others than Government, then I think you can expect ministers to come to the appropriate conclusions. And perhaps it won’t be just the taxpayer that is on the hook for those costs.”

But he stopped short of saying the Japanese tech firm should be barred from being awarded millions of pounds of government contracts while an inquiry was ongoing into the Horizon scandal and who was culpable.