Post Office Horizon Inquiry: Volume 1

Lord McNicol of West Kilbride Excerpts

Thursday 17th July 2025 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Jones of Whitchurch (Lab)]

My Lords, as I say, the extent of Fujitsu’s role in the scandal is not yet fully known, so we await the second stage of Sir Wyn Williams’ inquiry report. I very much hope that that will lay down some very clear rules for how we should proceed on this issue. Fujitsu has not been found guilty of any wrongdoing; nevertheless, the Government are in constructive discussions with Fujitsu, and I think it understands its responsibility to make amends when the final recommendations come out. I do not detect any sense from Fujitsu that it will not comply with the desire for proper redress.

[Lord McNicol of West Kilbride (Lab)]

My Lords, like others across the House, I welcome Wyn Williams’s first report into this IT scandal, and it is an IT scandal. It is clear from looking at the Green Paper that there are huge historical failings across the Post Office’s management and board—serious cultural failings. How do His Majesty’s Government see this Green Paper redressing those failings and setting up new structures for the future of the Post Office so that no sub-postmasters or sub-postmistresses are ever left to face these appalling situations again?

Every speaker in this debate has touched on the financial compensation, and I add my weight to that. The Statement made in the other place on 14 July said that £500 million of taxpayers’ money will be committed to bringing in and supporting a new IT system. That is before we even touch on the compensation packages. The Minister said that Fujitsu has a moral obligation. I think Fujitsu has far more than a moral obligation when we look at the situation that far too many of those sub-postmasters and sub-postmistresses were put into. They were ostracised within their communities, some took their own lives, and they were treated to years of not being believed and a legal system that believed a computer over their word in far too many cases. Fujitsu is on the hook for more than a moral obligation. It has a financial obligation to deal with both the redress and the implementation of a new and fairer IT system.

[Baroness Jones of Whitchurch (Lab)]

I thank my noble friend for those questions. He asked first about the cultural issues, and we all understand just how poorly the Post Office has been run over many years to allow this scandal to appear and not be addressed, given the increasing amount of evidence that was presented to the leadership in the Post Office. We are taking steps to address this. There is now, as my noble friend will know, a new leadership in the Post Office. The Green Paper gives us an opportunity to revisit what we want from the Post Office, which ought to remain a vital part of UK life in our communities and on our high streets, providing small business opportunities for many people. It is potentially a huge reset that will take place in the Post Office.

We are committed to maintaining it as a strong, accessible network. The noble Lord, Lord Sharpe, asked about the size. It is our preferred option that the overall size and shape of that network would remain the same. My noble friend is right about the cultural issues. For us, there are other issues about governance going forward, but the key thing is to make sure that postmasters and postmistresses play a critical role in shaping and designing the future of the Post Office, because they know what works, they know their communities and, as we know, we really have not listened to them sufficiently in the past. I am confident that they will very much be part of shaping the future of the Post Office as the consultation goes forward, and it will be all the better for that.

My noble friend asked about the technology. We are working to replace Fujitsu as quickly as we can. The development of the technology is based on a test and learn approach, so we are working to make sure that the replacement of Fujitsu is done right in a robust system. Post Office Ltd’s IT transformation is ensuring that the hardware that was purchased for NBIT will now be used to refresh counter devices across the network and that the software that was developed will still be used for drop and collect services. We need to get the technology right and there is money going into it, but the important thing here is that we really listen to those people at the heart of it, the postmasters and postmistresses.