Paul Patterson, the European boss at Fujitsu, said the firm has a "moral obligation" to contribute to a redress scheme for Post Office victims
He apologised for the company's role in "this appalling miscarriage of justice" during a Commons business select committee hearing
Between 1999 and 2015, the Post Office prosecuted hundreds of sub-postmasters and postmistresses based on Fujitsu's faulty Horizon IT system
Former sub-postmaster Alan Bates told MPs compensation schemes were "bogged down in red tape", describing the process as "madness"
The government last week announced a new law to "swiftly exonerate and compensate victims", after an ITV drama thrust the issue back into the spotlight
Post Office Minister Kevin Hollinrake said the legislation is expected "within weeks", and hoped those who need redress will receive it by August
Meanwhile, a public inquiry - which resumed last week - continued today and heard evidence from another Fujitsu employee
Patterson is asked if there is a moral obligation for Fujitsu to contribute to compensation.
"There is a moral obligation for the company to contribute," he reiterates.
He refers to the Horizon scandal as a "travesty" and says there are many parties involved.
The firm "has a part to play and to contribute to the redress... fund for the sub-postmasters", he says.
Image source, House of CommonsMore now from Patterson. He says Fujitsu was involved from the start, and that there were issues with the software.
He says that they helped the Post Office prosecute postmasters, for that, he says they are “truly sorry”.
“I believe we are an ethical company,” Patterson says, adding the company is different now to what it was in the early 2000s.
He adds that he is personally appalled by the evidence he has seen and by what he saw in ITV's television drama about the scandal.
Patterson says that the company fell short of its own standards.
Asked if Fujitsu evidence was used to put people in prison, he says the company gave data to the Post Office to support them.
He's then asked whether staff knew before 2010 if there were problems with Horizon.
"My gut feel would be yes," he replies.
Fujitsu executive Paul Patterson is now up at the committee hearing, and he begins by apologising for the firm's role in "this appalling miscarriage of justice".
He goes on to say that the company has a "moral obligation" to contribute to the compensation scheme for victims of the Post Office scandal.
Zoe Conway
Employment correspondent at the Post Office inquiry
Image source, PA MediaThe evidence this morning at the Post Office inquiry has so far been eye-popping, which is saying something when the topic under discussion is something called ARQ data.
The witness, Rajbinder Sangha, was working at Fujitsu when Post Office branch managers were being regularly convicted of fraud and false accounting. The convictions often rested on this ARQ data which recorded the transactions taking place at each Post Office branch and which was held at Fujitsu.
What we’ve been shown this morning is memos that Sangha was copied into, about how reliable this data was. In one memo written in 2010 it says that the ‘integrity’ of the data ‘cannot be guaranteed in witness statements.’
Meanwhile, according to the inquiry evidence, Fujitsu staff were signing witness statements in these Post Office court cases which said ‘the system was operating properly.’
Jo Hamilton is asked what her reaction would be to a piece of legislation that exonerates everyone, including those who haven't gone through the process that she did, and whether that would diminish her acquittal.
She said it doesn't diminish hers, but that something has to happen because there's 900 cases.
Hamilton says it's not perfect, "but it's the only way".
She goes on to say that the Post Office held her wages, and she had to remortgage her house twice in order to plug the gap being shown on the Horizon system.
Asked how she would feel about that money being paid as dividends to top executives, she says: "It is sickening really, to be honest... the fact we were shouting so loud at one point and everything was known and yet our money was being played with".
Emma Simpson
Business correspondent at the committee hearing
Both Jo Hamilton and Alan Bates are being asked about Fujitsu and what they’d like you to see happen. Is the company culpable?
Bates says it’s a question for inquiry to answer. Hamilton says if it’s proved they are in any part culpable then they should pay their fair share of the compensation bill.
Alan Bates is asked what he would tell people who watched the ITV drama who are asking, "how did this happen"?
He says a lot of money goes into running a local post office, and he thinks a lot of people feel there is a "financial gun held to their head" if they start kicking off and start raising too many problems with the Post Office.
He claims the Post Office publicised prosecutions of sub-postmasters as "examples of warnings to others to keep your head down and do as you're told".
On whether the inquiry will help stop miscarriages of justice, Bates says he hopes it sends a warning shot to big corporations, and that they realise what they decide impacts people at the frontline of their organisations.
Bates says he hopes in this instance people will be held to account.
Simon Jack
Business editor
Image source, House of CommonsJo Hamilton was convicted of false accounting and is in the group seeking compensation after their conviction was overturned.
She told the committee that trying to get compensation from the Post Office has felt "like being treated like a criminal all over again".
"They want you to justify every item and then there are forensic account reports and then you have to put everything into the machine and then months later it comes back and it just goes on and on. It's like being retried," she said.
And later she said: "They convinced me it was my fault. I wasn't tech savvy 20 years - they convinced me I'd made a hash of it. They literally gaslit me for three years. I know a lot of the group and they are literally falling apart"
Alan Bates continues to speak about delays to cases being processed.
He says people spent a lot of time with their lawyers and in many instances, their cases have been submitted to the department but they are "not moving through".
He says his case was submitted towards the beginning of October, but today would be the 66th working day and he's still waiting for his first offer.
Bates says he won't receive an offer until the end of this month.
He says cases "hit a dead end once they go into the department". There's no transparency behind it, he adds.
Image source, House of CommonsBack at the committee now, where Alan Bates and Jo Hamilton, two victims of the Horizon scandal, are being questioned by MPs.
Bates says he is feeling frustrated "to put in mildly" because, in his view, there is no reason why full redress to all victims shouldn't have been given by now.
Bates, who is part of the Group Litigation Order Scheme, says the compensation scheme is "bogged down" in red tape.
"It's madness, the whole thing is madness. And there's no transparency behind it, which is even more frustrating. We do not know what's happening to these cases once they disappear in there."
Sam Hancock
Live reporter at the Post Office inquiry
We're being shown emails and various other documents from 2010, which show that some Fujitsu employees knew "duplicate transactions" were being recorded in Horizon data from Post Office branches.
Remember, it was between 1999 and 2015 that the Post Office prosecuted hundreds of sub-postmasters and postmistresses based on Fujitsu's faulty IT system.
Rajbinder Sangha, giving evidence today, isn't always looped into these conversations - but she's in some of them. Asked if she was across issues like this, Sangha says they'd have been handled by more "senior members" of the team.
Similarly, asked if - when extracting data from Post Office branches in her role as a fraud and litigation support officer for Fujitsu - she was checking it for issues such as duplications, Sangha says she wasn't. It wasn't her responsibility to do so, she tells inquiry lawyer Julian Blake.
It's fair to say today's session is technical - it may even seem a little slow at times - but it's nitty gritty details like these that could shine a light on what the Post Office and Fujitsu knew about Horizon's faults, and what was done to fix them as hundreds of sub-postmasters were convicted on charges including fraud and theft.
Sam Hancock
Live reporter at the Post Office inquiry
Here at the Post Office inquiry, Rajbinder Sangha's been sworn in and we're straight into questions about some of the finer details of her job when she worked at Fujitsu’s fraud and litigation support office from 2010-16.
As part of her role as a support officer, Sangha says she processed and extracted data from local Post Office branches and passed it on to Post Office Ltd.
Some of that data, she explains, was a record of transactions that took place at the counter of those branches. It becomes clear why she's been called to give evidence, and why there's a level of interest in today's session.
Like I said earlier, there are less people in the room watching on than last week - including former sub-postmasters and postmistresses - but there are still a number of people in almost every row of chairs provided.
As inquiry lawyer Julian Blake begins running Sangha through some of the initial queries raised about the Horizon software system, I'm looking around to gauge people's reaction.
Some people are scribbling down notes, others are already shaking their heads as Sangha answers "no" when asked if she was responsible for various issues reported.
Emma Simpson
Business correspondent at the committee hearing
Although the spotlight is on Fujitsu's appearance, much of this session is on compensation.
Jo Hamilton spoke on the way in about the need to get it sorted especially for the trailblazing sub-postmasters who took the Post Office to court and won.
She's sitting behind her former MP Lord Arbuthnott. He hopes Fujitsu will accept they have played a part in the devastation caused and will play a part in the financial redress for all the sub-postmasters.
The committee panel asks about new potential legislation to overturn convictions, and where that would leave people who have already appealed their convictions successfully through the regular court process.
"This solution is not a comfortable one in may different ways," says Lord Arbuthnot.
However, he points out that the convictions need to be overturned as a matter of speed and the solution being proposed is "the lesser of two evils".
He does not think that convictions that have already been overturned through the court process would be devalued in any way.
Dr Neil Hudgell says he has to "slightly disagree" because some of his clients feel that mass exoneration of victims could lead to some genuinely guilty people being able compensation and acquittal.
Esyllt Carr
Business reporter outside the committee hearing
Outside the committee room, photographers and camera crews, including from Japanese media, are still waiting for the arrival of Paul Patterson from Fujitsu who hasn’t been seen even though proceedings have started.
It’s a very cold morning in Westminster!
Dr Hudgell is asked whether he thinks many more people will now come forward with legitimate redress claims.
He says up until this morning, he has had more than 200 new inquiries in relation to Horizon shortfall, and an excess of 20 that have asked lawyers to again look at settled cases.
He says there is "real strong concern" that there are "a number of under-settled matters".
More now from Dr Neil Hudgell, who is asked what it is that caused innocent people to confess to things they hadn't done.
He says there's a raft of reasons, but the main one being an "inequality of arms".
Dr Hudgell says sub-postmasters had to face a "big beast in the Post Office with all the machinery that sits behind it".
"You've got some poor person who's been accused of doing something hideous that doesn't have that", he adds.
It then develops into a situation where there's a court process and plea bargain, which is "again based on an inequality of arms", he says.
Image source, PA MediaDr Neil Hudgell is next asked where he thinks Fujitsu sits in terms of their obligation to provide compensation to the people "who have had their lives destroyed".
He says the Japanese tech company does have a role to play, but "ultimately this is not about a flawed IT system".
The lawyer says the Horizon case is about decisions made "on the back of that flawed IT system".
He says many of his clients have suffered from mental health issues as a result of the scandal.
To bring about an improvement in their mental health, "accountability" is needed, and Fujitsu are part of that, he says.
Lord Arbuthnot is asked how serious of an impact this scandal has had on sub-postmasters and on the confidence in the government's procurement process.
He says this has had "such human implications" that "spread throughout the country".
People who had been leaders in their communities were "humiliated", he adds.
Arbuthnot says he hopes Fujitsu would accept that they paid a part in the devastation that has been visited upon the sub-postmasters and mistresses.
He says Fujitsu should play a part in the redress the sub-postmasters need now.
Dr Neil Hudgell has represented victims of the Horizon scandal and has just been asked how many people have received compensation payments.
He has confirmed that most have received some sort of interim compensation.
But only three people have been "fully paid out" and between "28 to 30" have accepted - but not yet received - the "fixed £600,000 proposal".
Hudgell believes a lack of resources has led to delays and the process for compensating victims needs to be streamlined.