Post Office Scandal – live: MPs grill ‘sorry’ Fujitsu boss as Alan Bates says he’s not received compensation
Fujitsu’s Europe chief says he is ‘truly sorry’ for role in ‘appalling miscarriage of justice’ at Commons Business and Trade Committee hearing
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A boss from Fujitsu has issued an apology to victims of the Post Office Scandal - as victim and lead campaigner Alan Bates revealed he was still waiting for his first compensation offer.
Paul Patterson, director of Europe’s Fujitsu Services Limited, started his appearance before the Commons Business and Trade Committee by saying he was “truly sorry” for its role in the “appalling miscarriage of justice”.
Sitting alongside him, Post Office boss Nick Read said there had been a “cultural of denial” at the organisation when asked why it fought the provision of compensation to those who were unfairly punished for so long.
The pair were speaking after former postmaster Mr Bates revealed he was still waiting for his first compensation offer from his claim in the Post Office Scandal.
MP Liam Byrne, chairing the committee, says the evidence presented by Mr Patterson and Mr Read had left members feeling “fairly shocked”.
The scandal centres on the faulty Horizon IT system, made by Fujitsu, which made it appear as though money was missing, leading to the conviction of hundreds of postmasters by the Post Office.
Post Office executives should be held to account
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.”
31 people have come forward since ITV drama
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.”
Call to make the compensation process simpler
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.”
Session ended
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.
‘Determined to slim down the bureaucracy'
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.”
Government “nervous” to directly compensate victim’s family members in Horizon scandal – Kevin Hollinrake
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”.
Ministers failed to grasp scale of scandal
Post Office Minister Kevin Hollinrake has admitted the government failed to grasp the scale of the Horizon scandal in the past.
He says: “I don’t think we’ve been sufficiently challenging, no. I mean, I think this wouldn’t have happened or it would have been resolved earlier if we’d been more challenging earlier.”
He continues: “I’m not going to blame any one of my predecessors specifically, but clearly we could have done better.”
Earlier, he said he expected legislation that will overturn the wrongful convictions of hundreds of Post Office operators to be presented “within weeks”.
Post Office Minister Kevin Hollinrake now giving evidence
Sitting before the committee, Mr Hollinrake is asked for a date for when all of those still awaiting financial redress will receive it.
He says: “I very much hope to hope that will be by August.”
But he adds: “It’s not a deadline. It’s an ambition we want to deliver this scheme by.”
Why has Post Office ‘dragged its feet'
Asked why the Post Office “dragged its feet”, boss Nick Read blames a lack of understanding and curiosity for what was happening for there being resistance and delay in settling compensation claims from victim postmasters.
He added: “I want to ensure everyone in the organisation sees and understands what has been going on - that wasn’t the case when I joined in 2019.”
He added that he believes Fujitsu should help in paying copmensation to victims.
Fujitsu ‘knew of faults in 2008’, inquiry heard
Over at the Horizon IT inquiry, it is revealed that Fujitsu executives knew that faults with the system could lead to legal challenges as early as 2008.
In an email presented as evidence to the inquiry, a Fujitsu executive said: “If we do not fix this problem our spreadsheets presented in court are liable to be brought into doubt if duplicate transactions are spotted.”
In a 2008 email under the heading “benefits and risks”, Fujitsu executive, Graham Welsh, said “If we cannot better identify where data integrity can or cannot be guaranteed then we are in breach of contract and may be fined heavily.”
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