It has been revealed that the Post Office has spent more than £600m of public money to continue using the faulty Horizon IT system since 2012.
The system was originally developed by UK software firm ICL before being acquired by Japanese giant Fujitsu.
New evidence shows that the Government was warned about potential problems with the original £548m deal the Post Office struck with the Japanese company Fujitsu before it was signed in 1999.
The deal denied the Post Office ownership of Horizon’s core code, complicating future supplier changes, an issue which was flagged to Prime Minister Tony Blair and the Treasury at the time.
Overall, £2.5bn has been spent on Fujitsu contracts, including efforts to replace Horizon since 2012, such as a failed IBM project in 2016 and, later, a scrapped Amazon cloud-based solution.
Horizon’s failures led to over 900 wrongful prosecutions of Post Office sub-postmasters before private prosecutions were halted in 2015.
The current in-house replacement, the New Branch IT system (NBIT), has faced delays and escalating costs potentially exceeding £1bn, with doubts it will be implemented, and the Post Office and Fujitsu may remain tied to Horizon until 2030.
”We are implementing changes across the entire organisation so that we can build a Post Office fit for the future, fundamentally changed and with postmasters at its heart,” a spokesperson for the Post Office said.
A spokesperson for Blair, cited by news organisations, added: “As the documents show, and make completely clear, Mr Blair took the issue very seriously.
“His response to the Mulgan note, and in other interactions, was to raise the issue of the viability and reliability of the end project as this was his overarching concern. He subsequently received these reassurances.
“It is now clear that the Horizon product was seriously flawed, leading to tragic and completely unacceptable consequences, and he has deep sympathy with all those affected.”
Public outrage has ensued upon this revelation.
One user took to X (formerly Twitter) to post: “You know the Horizon IT system that led to innocent people going to prison? The Post Office have paid Fujitsu £600m for the contract to use it since 2012 and we’re still paying them!
“We shouldn’t be paying Fujitsu. We should be sending them to prison.”
Another left a reply to a post by an official Fujistu account, which read: “What a totally untrustworthy organisation. A total disgrace. Your executives should be rotting in prison.”