Fujitsu should have shown more "remorse" since failings of Horizon IT system emerged, minister Gareth Thomas has said while claiming that all those who had applied for compensation would have received "80 per cent of the amount" by March 2025.
After an intensive year of testimony and revelations at the public inquiry, Thomas recently suggested more could have been done by Fujitsu since the truth about Horizon emerged.
“I’m surprised Fujitsu haven’t done more to indicate remorse. It was a computer system they developed," The Guardian quoted Thomas as saying.
“I’m glad they’re still working with the Post Office to make sure the current Horizon system [works], which the Post Office is still having to use while a replacement is in development; I’m grateful to them for the fact that they’re continuing to work with us.
“But clearly there were significant failings, or it would appear, at least, that there were significant failings in the computer system. And we’ll obviously wait for Sir Williams to opine in full on that issue.
"I think I’m just surprised that they haven’t … wanted to do more," he said.
At the start of 2024, Fujistu, which is forecast to have earned more than £1.5bn from the Horizon contract by the time it expires in 2025, apologised for the role it had played.
The Japanese company also said it will negotiate a compensation package with the government after the public inquiry led by the former high court judge Sir Wyn Williams has published its report.
Talking about compensation to the victims, Thomas claimed that all those who had applied for compensation would by March next year have received 80 per cent of the amount offered even if the total sum was still under dispute.
“There are a series of complex cases still to be sorted, although we have made a lot of progress in just the five months since we’ve been in government. The amount of compensation that’s been paid out has doubled since we came into office," he said.
The Post Office expects to have paid out more than £650 million in compensation to branch owner-operators by next March, and it has put aside £1bn.
Commenting on the buzz on the future of Post Office model, Thomas expressed his doubts on the proposed idea of mutualisation.
He said, “My instinct is that, one of the ways you transform the culture of an organisation like this is to give more power to those who were treated very badly in the past.
"We’ve got to think through what are the incentives that you build in to the governance of an organisation like the Post Office that really gives postmasters much more of a voice in the key decisions the board of the Post Office has to make going forward.
“Given that the Post Office has got a significant social value in that sense, I don’t think I’m as yet convinced that full mutualisation is the way forward. But how do we ensure postmasters can hold those at the centre more accountable?”
It was reported earlier that the government is looking at the future ownership and structure of the Post Office. The Communication Workers Union has proposed handing it over to branch operators, known as mutualisation.
Hemandra Hindocha and wife Kirti
Hemandra Hindocha and wife Kirti