Closing summary
So, to sum up today’s business and trade committee hearing on the Post Office Horizon IT scandal and compensation to victims:
Fujitsu, the Japanese technology firm that built the flawed Horizon IT system at the heart of the Post Office scandal, has admitted for the first time that it should contribute to financial redress for victims, which is estimated to reach £1bn. Its Europe chief executive Paul Patterson also apologised for the firm’s role in the scandal, saying: “We are truly sorry”.
There is a moral obligation for the company to contribute. The right place to determine that is when our responsibility is very clear. There are many parties involved in this travesty.”
The retired judge Sir Wyn Williams is leading an inquiry into the scandal.
Patterson admitted that the firm had been aware of “bugs and errors” in the system since the 1990s, but insisted that they had been flagged to the Post Office.
The Post Office is still using that IT system, but will get off it as soon as a new, modern system is in place, said Nick Read, the Post Office chief executive.
MPs also heard from Alan Bates, who featured in the ITV drama Mr Bates vs the Post Office that has captured the public imagination and brought the scandal back into the headlines, prompting the government to announce it would overturn all convictions under blanket legislation to be introduced within weeks. Bates said:
There is no reason at all why full financial redress shouldn’t have been delivered by now. It’s gone on for far too long. People are suffering, they’re dying … And it just seems to be tied up in bureaucracy. And that seems to be the big problem.
In moving testimony, another former post office operator, Jo Hamilton, who was forced to plead guilty to false accounting and whose conviction was later overturned, talked about how the process of claiming compensation is “almost like being retried”.
The business minister, Kevin Hollinrake, said he hopes that compensation to victims will be paid out by August. “It’s more complex than we probably initially anticipated but is there ambition to get that money out the door as quickly as possible? That’s our number one priority.”
Lord Arbuthnot, the peer who has long campaigned on behalf of Horizon victims, said the scandal went unquestioned for so long because it involved “people who have been convicted or pleaded guilty to crime up against the most trusted brand in the country”.
The business and trade committee hearing is over.
Kevin Hollinrake, the business minister, wrapped up by saying:
There’s no shortage of appetite or willingness to do it, these things take longer than we expect. I’ve seen every compensation scheme I’ve ever worked with, as a backbencher. And there’s no difference with this one.
It’s more complex than we probably initially anticipated but is there ambition to get that money out the door as quickly as possible? That’s our number one priority. Is it our ambition to make sure it is fair and seen to be fair? That’s our number two priority. Is it our ambition, our priority to make sure people are held to account for what’s gone wrong? Absolutely. That’s what the inquiry is there for.”
Updated
