Fujitsu should set up fund to compensate Horizon families says senior Labour MP
Fujitsu should set up a fund to compensate relatives of Post Office workers affected by the Horizon scandal, a senior Labour MP has said.
Writing for this newspaper, Ian Lavery, a member of the Commons Business Committee which grilled Post Office and Fujitsu bosses this week, called for the firm to set up a “substantial trust fund.”
“How do you quantify the damage of robbing people of their lifesavings, their livelihoods, their standing in the community?” Mr Lavery wrote. How about the mental anguish of those who saw family relationships break down or those who have seen loved ones die believing them to have stolen money?”
A 2021 inquiry heard the children of wrongly convicted sub postmasters were “bullied” and “spat at” in the wake of the scandal. This week, the boss of Fujitsu admitted the firm has a "moral obligation" to pay compensation to sub-postmasters whose lives were ruined by its faulty IT system.
Europe Director Paul Patterson said the Japanese firm was aware of "bugs and errors" in its Horizon programme from "an early stage" and admitted it provided evidence to the Post Office which led to staff being wrongly prosecuted.
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Appearing before the Commons Business and Trade Committee on Tuesday, he said Fujitsu was "truly sorry" to more than 900 postmasters and their families who were wrongly pursued for theft and fraud due to the flawed IT system it developed. "We were involved from the very start. We did have bugs and errors in the system. And we did help the Post Office in their prosecutions of sub-postmasters. For that we are truly sorry," he said.
Mr Lavery added: “Whatever actions Fujitsu might take will never repair the extraordinary damage to many postmasters and their families however the funding of a substantial Trust fund might go some way to alleviate the distress caused. This is yet another scandal where honest, hardworking people have been failed by government indifference and corporate greed.”
How do you quantify the damage of robbing people of their lifesavings, their livelihoods, their standing in the community?
Ian Lavery says the firm should set up a trust fund (Stoke Sentinel)By IAN LAVERY, Labour MP and member of the Commons Business Committee,
As is so often the case, the purveyors of popular culture have captured the imagination of the nation in a way politicians could only dream of. Up until a few weeks ago the horizon scandal, which has devastated the lives of sub postmasters and sub postmistresses, was discussed, mainly, in ways that played down the scale of the injustice and told campaigners how difficult it was to solve.
An ITV drama “Mr Bates vs the Post Office” changed that in a matter of days. No longer were people who had lost everything at the hands of a dysfunctional computer system told that, whilst unfortunate, it was difficult.
Within days the former chief executive of the Post Office was handing back her CBE, compensation schemes were being outlined for those affected and legislation prepared to quash convictions en masse. Last week, with the glare of the national press full square upon them, the Chief Executive of the Post Office, Nick Read and the European director of Fujitsu appeared in front of the Business and Trade Select Committee of which I am a member.
There were further startling revelations, including the acceptance that monies coerced out of Sub Postmasters and Sub Postmistresses using jail time as a threat, may well have found their way into the pockets of Post Office executives and dividend holders. The evidence from Alan Bates and Jo Hamilton was astounding. The impact this scandal has had on their lives and their families cannot be understated.
How do you quantify the damage of robbing people of their lifesavings, their livelihoods, their standing in the community? How about the mental anguish of those who saw family relationships break down or those who have seen loved ones die believing them to have stolen money?
Whatever actions Fujitsu might take will never repair the extraordinary damage to many postmasters and their families however the funding of a substantial Trust fund might go some way to alleviate the distress caused. This is yet another scandal where honest, hardworking people have been failed by government indifference and corporate greed.
That people like Alan Bates and Jo Hamilton have finally been vindicated, is good progress but there are a whole host of scandals that continue to go unanswered. Without fundamentally changing how our society treats ordinary people and ending a culture where the powerful protect their own, there will be more outrages like the ones exposed here.
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