‘Fujitsu must pay’: calls grow for Japanese firm to foot the bill in Britain’s Post Office scandal

In Japan, however, the story has barely been reported and the company’s head office appears to be trying to distance itself from the case by referring inquiries back to Fujitsu Services UK, which developed the Horizon computer software used by thousands of post offices across Britain.

The entire scandal and Fujitsu’s role in it have been thrust back into the spotlight in the UK after the screening of a television drama, Mr Bates vs the Post Office, at the start of the year depicting the struggles of a postmaster accused of embezzling funds.

While the initial revelations were shocking when their full scope became apparent in High Court hearings in 2019, the four-part television programme has aroused new fury at the heavy-handed handling of the original problems by the Post Office, the failures of the government of the day and Fujitsu, as the developer of the Horizon system.

The Daily Telegraph newspaper on Monday published a story headlined “The Post Office bosses who presided over the biggest miscarriage of justice in legal history”, pointing out that all had gone on to lucrative careers elsewhere, including Paula Vennells, the chief executive who was awarded a CBE in 2019, long after the scandal had progressed to the courts, for her “services to charity and the Post Office”.

The British government has to date paid out £138 million in compensation for wrongful convictions in the scandal and, in the wake of the first episode of the drama, a government spokesman suggested it should not be British taxpayers who are out of pocket for errors committed by Fujitsu.

A strongly worded editorial published by the Telegraph on January 7 was headlined “Fujitsu must pay for Post Office scandal. Why should the taxpayer foot the bill and not those responsible?”