MPs left ‘shocked’ despite Fujitsu’s Post Office apology

As the inquiry into the Post Office scandal gets underway, MPs have already admitted to being ‘fairly shocked’ by what they have heard so far.

In a hearing held by the Business and Trade Committee on Tuesday, January 16, MPs heard from the major players in the Post Office scandal.

These included Alan Bates and Jo Hamilton, who gained prominence through the ITV dramatization of the story, ‘Mr Bates vs The Post Office.’

The Post Office’s chief executive, and a representative from Fujitsu, the company responsible for the flawed software implicated in numerous wrongful convictions, faced questions from the board.

Head of Fujitsu Europe questioned

Paul Patterson, the director of Fujitsu Services Limited for Europe, was asked by the committee: ‘Mr Patterson. . .would you say that Fujitsu is an ethical company?’

Speaking on behalf of Fujitsu Patterson replied: ‘Firstly, if I may just comment on what I’ve just been listening to this morning, to the sub-postmasters and their families.

‘Fujitsu would like to apologise for our part in this appalling miscarriage of justice. We were involved from the very start.

‘We did have bugs and errors in the system and we did help the Post Office in their prosecutions of the sub-postmasters and for that we are truly sorry,’ he said.

Patterson then addressed the question directly: ‘To your question around our ethics. I believe we are an ethical company.

‘The company today is quite different to the company in the early 2000s. Clearly we need to demonstrate that both to our customers, to government and to the wider society.’

Committee left ‘fairly shocked’

The person chairing the meeting is Liam Byrne, who admitted that the evidence submitted so far has left the committee ‘fairly shocked.’

It is clear that there is still many unanswered questions from both the Post Office and Fujitsu, whose motto is ‘Our purpose is to make the world more sustainable by generating trust in society through innovation.’

Byrne added that both entities under scrutiny cannot begin to imagine the scale of the compensation due to the innocent parties, he did nonetheless appreciate Fujisu’s offer to share in compensation payments.