Dear Secretary of State,

Re. The use of Fujitsu in IT procurement

I am concerned by reports in the Private Eye regarding meetings the Government is having with Fujitsu with the aim of the company providing IT solutions to track the country’s stock of Personal Protective Equipment.

As you know, Fujitsu was responsible for the faulty Horizon IT system which led to hundreds of subpostmasters being removed from their post or prosecuted. This is the largest miscarriage of justice in modern history and caused unimaginable hardship for so many; in one tragic case, it led to the death of a subpostmaster by suicide.

Through court proceedings, the full scale of Fujitsu’s culpability in this scandal is now coming to light. In Bates v Post Office Ltd. Justice Fraser described their Horizon system as “not remotely robust” and noted “grave concerns” about the “veracity of evidence given by Fujitsu employees to other courts in previous proceedings about the known existence of bugs, errors and defects in the Horizon system”.

Given the outstanding questions regarding Fujitsu’s involvement in the Horizon scandal, it would be an insult to all the subpostmasters whose livelihoods have been destroyed to place the company at the heart of our covid response. The Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy Select Committee’s inquiry into the Post Office and Horizon is still ongoing and their final report is likely to contain strong criticisms of Fujitsu in its role in the scandal, it would be incredibly inappropriate for the Government to overlook these concerns and outsource key logistical operations to them.

I therefore urge you to reconsider awarding any contracts to Fujitsu whilst the BEIS Committee continue their inquiry and whilst subpostmasters continue their fight for justice.

Yours sincerely,

Gill Furniss MP

Member of Parliament for Sheffield Brightside and Hillsborough