Post Office Scandal: MPs grill ‘sorry’ Fujitsu boss as Alan Bates slams compensation delays

Closing the session with Paul Patterson, director of Europe’s Fujitsu Services Limited, and Nick Read, Post Office boss, MP Liam Byrne, who is charing the committee, says the pair have left members feeling “fairly shocked” by their evidence, or lack of.

He says: “You have left us I think feeling fairly shocked, you’ve not been able to supply the committee with key events in the timeline such as when the Post Office first knew that remote access was possible.

“You’ve told us that you haven’t kept evidence safe about what money was paid to you inappropriate and therefore what is owed back and you can’t estimate the scale of compensation

“We are grateful for the moral committment from Fujitsu that they will share in the compensation payment but that leaves us many questions which we need to put to the minister which is the subject of our next session.”

Key point from today was Fujitsu, which was behind the glitched Horizon software at the centre of the scandal, agreeing it owed money to the compensation scheme.

Paul Patterson, director of Europe’s Fujitsu Services Limited, told MPs that there was a “moral obligation for the company to contribute” to compensation.

“It’s also important that the inquiry deals with these very complex matters,” he said.

“In that context, absolutely we have a part to play and to contribute to the redress, I think is the words that Mr Bates used, the redress fund for the subpostmasters.”

Scotland’s top prosecutor has apologised to those who “suffered a miscarriage of justice” as a result of the Post Office Horizon scandal.

Lord Advocate Dorothy Bain KC said she wanted to “acknowledge the harm caused to the people in these cases who have suffered a miscarriage of justice”.

In a stattement to MSPs at Holyrood she said: “The wrongly accused and convicted subpostmasters and postmistresses are due an apology from those who have failed them, and I do that today as head of the system of criminal prosecution in Scotland.

“The Post Office is part of that system and I apologise for the failures of those in the Post Office who were responsible for investigating and reporting flawed cases.”

Fujitsu issued an apology at the hearing earlier – but that’s not enough for the tens of thousnad sof people who have signed a petition calling on the Government to stop handing contracts to Fujitsu.

The petition states contracts should only be provided after the firm was accountable for its role in the Post Office Horizon scandal.

Robin Priestley, campaigns director at 38 Degrees, which launched the petition, said: “Since the airing of Mr Bates vs The Post Offic’ we’ve seen the immense power that the public’s anger on this appalling issue can have.

“With the backing of over 1.2 million people, our petition for Paula Vennells to lose her CBE achieved its aim, but there’s much more to do to ensure that those who oversaw the scandal which ruined so many sub-postmasters’ lives are truly held accountable.

“One part of that is ensuring accountability for Fujitsu, who have gone on to rake in millions of pounds in public contracts, despite their role.”

Post Office chief executive Nick Read was asked whether they should ever be allowed to sit on the board of any company if they allowed private prosecutions of subpostmasters to wrongfully go ahead.

“If evidence is produced that there was some form of cover-up, then clearly action needs to be taken,” he told MPs.

“I think if there is a situation where there is culpability, then clearly people will need to be held to account.”

Post Office boss Nick Read said it has seen more postmasters impacted by the Horizon scandal come forwarded directly to it since the ITV drama Mr Bates vs The Post Office was broadcast.

“What has happened as a consequence of the drama is that some 200 postmasters have come forward,” he said.

“We have had 31 who have come directly to us as a consequence of the drama. That is good, the raising awareness is a good thing as it is bringing people forward.

“As we’ve said before, we shouldn’t assume that the drama in itself will bring people forward, so we will continue to try and do so.

“You won’t be surprised but many postmasters tell us not to contact them and simply want to move on, which is a desperately concerning situation for us and people need redress.”

As we’ve explained previously, the compensation process has been testing for postmasters.

Mr Hollinrake is asked if the Post Office would seek to make the compensation process simpler – he says he welcomes the diea.

He says: “I think it’s incumbent on all of us involved in this process to try and accelerate every part of the process.”

He said he welcomed Post Office chief executive Nick Read’s promise to “look again at the process and streamline it because there were some very concerning evidence … about some of the complexity, some of the delays in responses, that shouldn’t have happened.

“There should be enough resources there to respond quickly to any any simple query, simple question.”

Post Office minister Kevin Hollinrake has finished giving evidence – we’ll now provide posts recapping on the highlights of today’s session while covering the Post Office Inquiry happening elsewhere today.

Kevin Hollinrak told MPs “we’re determined to slim down the bureaucracy” surrounding compensation for subpostmasters.

He said he is working with the compensation advisory board on “how we can expedite payments”.

“If you look at all the schemes, they are very slow at the start, but that’s the way these schemes are because it takes a while to start filling the pipeline.”

But, he said, full and final settlements were made for most claimants that applied in the original timescale.

“It’s not as if people sit around doing nothing.”

Carl Creswell, director at the Department for Business and Trade, said: “We aren’t sitting there with a large number of unprocessed claims.”

Postal minister Kevin Hollinrake said the situation was “heart breaking” but there is “nervousness” to open compensation scheme up to families.

He said it would “hugely increase the scope and complexity” of compensation schemes: “It wouldn’t be an easy thing to do to open it up to family members”.