The Post Office will scrap its Fujitsu Horizon software system next year, amid the scandal which saw hundreds of subpostmasters given criminal convictions.
Between 1999 and 2015, hundreds of staff members were accused of false accounting, theft and fraud after using the new Horizon system.
The faulty IT software wrongly suggested that the employees were stealing money.
Since its introduction in 1999, there have been several versions of the software system, with the most up-to-date version being put in place in 2017.
This version had been described by the Post Office as “robust, relative to comparable systems”.
However, in 2019, a High Court judge ruled that the system, which allows postmasters to enter their sales figures via a touchscreen, contained several “bugs, errors and defects”.
The Horizon IT system, owned by the Japanese company Fujitisu, is due to be replaced in 2025.
A spokesperson for the Post Office told Express.co.uk: “It has been our long-stated intent to replace Horizon with a new cloud-based system.
LATEST DEVELOPMENTS:
“After evaluation, this will be the version that we plan to install in pilot branches later in 2024. Around 300 serving Postmasters are helping make sure the system is fit for the future with an effective and efficient roll-out across the network.”
Currently, no one has been found criminally responsible for the Horizon software glitch, yet Scotland Yard is looking at “potential fraud offences” developing out of the prosecutions.
A spokesperson for Fujitsu said: “The current Post Office Horizon IT statutory Inquiry is examining complex events stretching back over 20 years to understand who knew what, when, and what they did with that knowledge.
“The Inquiry has reinforced the devastating impact on postmasters’ lives and that of their families, and Fujitsu has apologised for its role in their suffering.
“Fujitsu is fully committed to supporting the Inquiry in order to understand what happened and to learn from it. Out of respect for the Inquiry process, it would be inappropriate for Fujitsu to comment further at this time.”
The public inquiry, which is due to finish this year, is looking into the failings of the IT system and the wrongful convictions of subpostmasters.
More than one million people have signed a petition calling for former Post Office chief Paula Vennells to be stripped of her CBE, an award she was given for services to the Post Office.
Rishi Sunak has joined the calls, saying he would “strongly
support” the Honours Forfeiture Committee if it decided to look at revoking her
award.
The Prime Minister’s spokesperson said he “shares the
public’s strength of feeling” on this issue.
The petition, addressed to Sir Chris Wormald, chair of the
Forfeiture Committee, says: “Evidence has been produced that the Post Office
engaged in a mass cover up which led to the wrongful prosecution of 550 Post
Office Staff many of whom were subsequently jailed, bankrupted and in some
cases, sadly took their own lives.
“Having been handed a CBE for services to the Post Office,
and moved out into other senior positions in government and healthcare, it is
only right that this award is now withdrawn through the process of forfeiture.”
Vennels has apologised for the “suffering” caused to those wrongfully
convicted.
Yesterday, Sunak confirmed that Justice Secretary Alex Chalk
is considering plans to exonerate all 700 subpostmasters convicted in the
scandal.
Just 93 people have so far been pardoned for the
convictions, which were handed out between 1999 and 2015.
Have you been affected by the Horizon IT scandal? If you’d like to share your story, get in touch with [email protected].
