Alert contract for Post Office scandal firm Fujitsu criticised by peers

Sub-postmasters and mistresses have fought to have their convictions quashed

The decision to award a government contract to a firm at the centre of the Horizon Post Office scandal has been criticised as "immoral" by peers.

Fujitsu has been paid £1.6m to work on a new emergency alert system.

More than 700 Post Office managers were convicted when Fujitsu's faulty accounting software made it look like money was missing from their sites.

The government said all contracts were awarded in line with regulations and transparency guidelines.

However, raising the issue in the House of Lords, Conservative peer Lord Arbuthnot, a longstanding campaigner for the victims of the Horizon scandal, questioned why Fujitsu had been granted the contract.

"Fujitsu's Horizon system caused sub-postmasters of this country to be shamefully accused of things they had not done," he said.

"Some went to prison, some took their own lives, all those accused were humiliated in the eyes of their own communities."

He added that Fujitsu had not given "a single word of apology" over its role.

• Why were hundreds of sub-postmasters prosecuted?

• Time set to test mobile phone emergency siren

Fellow Tory peer Lord Cormack said awarding the contract to Fujitsu was "completely wrong" and "immoral".

Labour peer Baroness Chakrabarti also said there were "basic decency and morality concerns" about the contract being granted while a public inquiry into the Horizon scandal was ongoing.

Meanwhile, Labour's Lord Harris said the involvement of Fujitsu could undermine public trust in the alert system.

In response, Cabinet Office Minister Baroness Neville-Rolfe said Fujitsu had played only a "small role" in the development of the UK's emergency alert system, which she described as a "critical tool" for warning people whose lives are at risk.

She agreed the impact of the Horizon scandal was "utterly horrendous" but said there was no link between the work Fujitsu did for the Post Office and its work on the alert system.

She added that it was important procurement processes were "open" and contracts were awarded "in accordance with the rules".

The government contract for the work runs until October 2025 and has a value of up to £5m, although Baroness Neville-Rolfe said Fujitsu had only been paid £1.6m in the past year.

Fujitsu declined to comment.

The UK's new alert system, which is designed to warn of extreme weather events, terror incidents or other life-threating emergencies, is due to be tested on Sunday, with a message sent to almost all smartphones.

The emergency alert message will be accompanied by a siren-like sound in a test on Sunday

The Horizon scandal has been described as one of the most widespread miscarriages of justice in UK legal history.

Between 2000 and 2014, the Post Office prosecuted 701 sub-postmasters and sub-postmistresses based on information from the faulty computer system.

Some went to prison following convictions for false accounting and theft, while others were financially ruined.

Fujitsu has not apologised but previously said it was cooperating with the ongoing public inquiry and was committed to providing "the fullest and most transparent information so that key lessons are learned".