Kemi Badenoch failed to raise the issue of the Horizon scandal or compensation for Post Office operators when she met Fujitsu at Davos last year, instead focusing on asking the firm for its views on investing in the UK.
The business secretary, who was then trade secretary, was warned by civil servants in her briefing note of the “risk” around the Horizon scandal, in which Fujitsu supplied faulty software that led to about 700 post office operators being wrongly convicted of fraud.
However, the list of priorities drawn up by civil servants for Badenoch’s meeting with Takahito Tokita, the chief executive, included hearing from Fujitsu about opportunities for enhancing UK-Japan relations, offering support for its investments, and asking what more could be done to ensure the second phase of a UK project went ahead.
The briefing notes added: “Fujitsu are involved in an ongoing statutory inquiry into the implementation and failings of the Horizon accounting system, which was used by the Post Office, led by Sir Wyn Williams. We do not expect this to be raised by Fujitsu”.
The firm, which makes more than £100m a year from government work, apologised publicly for its part in the affair last month, admitting it had a “moral obligation” to contribute towards redress for victims. It also wrote to the government to say it would not bid for further Whitehall contracts while the inquiry continued.
Since then, parliament’s Treasury committee has written to 21 government departments and public bodies asking them to provide information on work given to the Japanese-owned company since 2019, when the high court ruled there had been dozens of bugs and errors in its Horizon IT system.
Minutes of the 2023 meeting between Badenoch and Fujitsu, obtained under freedom of information laws, show that she opened by saying she was “pleased to be meeting with Fujitsu and was keen to hear their views on the UK as [an] investment destination”.
She went on to ask “what parts of the FTA [free trade agreement between the UK and Japan] were particularly important to companies like Fujitsu”.
The issue of the Horizon scandal gained prominence last month after the airing of an ITV drama, Mr Bates vs the Post Office, with the government subsequently introducing a law to speed up the quashing of convictions.
The briefing note and minutes raise questions about whether ministers did not press Fujitsu on the Horizon scandal or issue of compensation because they were focused on attracting investment from the Japanese firm.
Asked whether this was the case, a Department for Business and Trade spokesperson said: “This meeting took place before Kemi Badenoch became business secretary, and therefore focused on topics related to her brief at the time of international trade, such as foreign investment in the UK and our trade deal with Japan.
“Since becoming business secretary, Kemi Badenoch and minister Kevin Hollinrake have been focused on getting a fair deal for the victims of the Horizon scandal. She and Kevin secured an upfront offer of £600,000 for postmasters with overturned convictions in September 2023, which she referenced in her speech to Conservative party conference in October 2023, long before the ITV drama prompted many media organisations to take notice.”
In June 2022, Fujitsu announced a new £22m Centre for Cognitive and Advanced Technology (CCAT) in the UK, with plans for further investment.
