Fujitsu executives must answer whether they prioritised "profits before people" at a House of Commons hearing next week about the Post Office's Horizon software scandal, a senior MP said on Wednesday.
The Japanese tech giant is alleged to have turned a blind eye to known bugs in its Horizon system, and is under pressure to fork out millions for compensation to 983 sub-postmasters who were wrongly convicted of fraud when the software made it look as if money was missing from their shops.
With the prosecutions by the Post Office exploding into public consciousness thanks to an ITV drama, Labour's Liam Byrne said he also expected to hear from some of the sub-postmasters and Government minister Kevin Hollinrake at Tuesday's hearing of the business and trade select committee.
“Fujitsu have got lots of questions to answer but it basically comes down to one big question, which is did they put profits before people?” the committee's chairman told BBC Breakfast.
“These prosecutions have been unfolding over a long period of time. Somebody in Fujitsu must have known that things were going wrong. Somebody in Fujitsu must have raised a red flag somewhere.
“And so the question then becomes did they raise those red flags? Who did they tell? And whoever they told, what did they then do about it?” the MP said.
Fujitsu confirmed it will attend Mr Byrne's hearing.
The MP added that “there's also questions about whether frankly ministers have been rewarding failure”. Fujitsu has been handed £5 billion worth of Government contracts since 2019 when Horizon was found in court to be riddled with problems as 555 sub-postmasters won a group action against the Post Office.
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.
Mr Hollinrake, the postal services minister, stressed that Fujitsu should pay for the compensation.
"If they can be held legally responsible or financially responsible, then they should be, because this has cost the taxpayer an awful lot of money, of course," he told Times Radio on Wednesday.
"And I don't think it's right that just the taxpayer picks up the tab for this. So there may be those questions to be answered down the road."
The Prime Minister's official spokesman told reporters: "We strongly believe that individuals, that businesses, will be held to account for one of the biggest miscarriages of justice this country has ever seen.
“We will not resile from that. But it is right that we allow an independent inquiry to get the facts, to set them out, and then we can act.”
However, ministers have stopped short of saying the Japanese company will be barred from being awarded new Government contracts while an inquiry is ongoing into the Horizon scandal and who was culpable.
Only just over 90 of the sub-postmasters have been formally cleared. Rishi Sunak told the Commons that the process of pardons and compensation would be expedited via emergency legislation.
The PM has been under pressure over the slow pace of compensation being awarded to the wronged Post Office workers from his time in No10 and Chancellor before that.
Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey and other former postal affairs ministers are also facing questions over why they did not do more when concerns were raised with them about Horizon.
Mr Hollinrake said that he and some of his ministerial predecessors should "ask serious questions of ourselves" as to whether they had been "effective" with regard to the scandal.
Ex-Post Office boss Paula Vennells has handed back her CBE after a huge public outcry, but also faces pressure to hand back bonuses she received before leaving the company in 2019.
Mr Hollinrake said the inquiry should be allowed to do its work.
“If it identifies Paula Vennells as somebody who is responsible... then we can decide what sanctions might be available for individuals," he told LBC Radio. “That might include financial penalties or indeed it might include criminal prosecutions.”
A Fujitsu spokesman said on Tuesday: “The current Post Office Horizon IT statutory Inquiry is examining complex events stretching back over 20 years to understand who knew what, when, and what they did with that knowledge.
“The Inquiry has reinforced the devastating impact on postmasters’ lives and that of their families, and Fujitsu has apologised for its role in their suffering. Fujitsu is fully committed to supporting the Inquiry in order to understand what happened and to learn from it.”
