The computer firm blamed for the scandal that put innocent Post Office workers in jail has landed a new contract – to run the Police National Computer.
The Home Office has handed Fujitsu a £48million four-year deal to maintain a vital database tracking the records and whereabouts of criminals and suspects across the country.
That is despite glitches in the Japanese firm’s Horizon software causing accounting shortfalls at subpost offices between 2000 and 2014.
It meant hundreds of sub-postmasters were wrongly prosecuted and sent to prison for offences ranging from theft to fraud, with many losing their homes.
The deal comes while two former Fujitsu staff are at the centre of a Scotland Yard perjury probe over evidence they gave police prosecuting post workers.
Alan Bates, of the Justice for Subpostmasters Alliance, said: “It is hard to believe Fujitsu still gets so much government business, and staggering they have the Police National Computer deal.”
Now Labour’s Angela Rayner has called for a review of all government contracts with the firm. The new Fujitsu deal was awarded as a “direct contract with a single supplier, without competition” and will run until 2026. The PNC is used by all UK policing and security services to maintain public safety and to minimise risk to officers.
In April Fujitsu also landed a five-year deal worth up to £500million to provide a range of banking IT services for HMRC. It has recently been given a £44million Foreign Office telecommunications services contract.
The firm made £6.1million providing a phone network at the Commonwealth Games this summer.
Two years ago 555 subpostmasters won a High Court case showing the Horizon software was at fault. It led to £57.75million paid out in damages and a compensation scheme now joined by a further 2,500 sub postmasters impacted by the faulty software.
Fujitsu did not comment.
The Home Office said the contract was awarded to Fujitsu without competition to “ensure the future of the PNC service”.
