Summary

  • The Post Office Horizon inquiry today heard from Fujitsu employees John Simpkins and Gerald Barnes

  • The inquiry, designed to "ensure a public summary of the failings" and learn lessons, began in February 2021 - but a recent ITV drama has thrust the scandal back into the spotlight

  • Between 1999 and 2015, more than 900 sub-postmasters and postmistresses were prosecuted for theft and false accounting after money appeared to be missing from their branches

  • But the prosecutions were based on evidence from faulty Fujitsu Horizon software

  • On Tuesday, Fujitsu Europe's boss, Paul Patterson, told MPs the firm had a "moral obligation" to contribute to compensation

  • The global chief executive of Fujitsu, Takahito Tokita, also apologised, speaking to the BBC at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland

Live Reporting

  1. Hello and thanks for joining our coverage of the Post Office inquiry.

    Today we're hearing from John Simpkins, team leader at the Fujitsu software support centre, and Fujitsu software developer Gerald Barnes.

    Yesterday Fujitsu employee Rajbinder Sangha told the inquiry that data from the scandal-hit Horizon system was still being used in court proceedings.

    The inquiry itself began in February 2021 but the Horizon scandal has been thrust back into the spotlight following an ITV drama based on stories of the wrongly accused sub-postmasters and postmistresses.

    You can watch live coverage from the inquiry by clicking Play above, but we won’t be writing text updates today.