The boss of Fujitsu has apologised to subpostmasters and said there is a “moral obligation” for the technology giant to contribute to the compensation, as he appeared before MPs.
It comes as Alan Bates and other campaigners blamed red tape and bureaucracy amid anger over delays for subpostmasters accessing compensation.
Fujitsu Europe director Paul Patterson said: “To the subpostmasters and their families, Fujitsu would like to apologise for our part in this appalling miscarriage of justice.
“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 subpostmasters. For that we are truly sorry,” he told the Business and Trade Committee.
He is appearing alongside Post Office boss Nick Read as public and political anger continues over the Horizon scandal.
“I think there is a moral obligation for the company to contribute,” Mr Patterson said.
He added that “it’s also important that the inquiry deals with these very complex matters”, and “in that context, absolutely we have a part to play and to contribute to the redress, I think is the words that Mr Bates used, the redress fund for the subpostmasters”.
Mr Patterson also told MPs the company gave evidence which was used to send innocent people to prison during the Horizon scandal.
The information shared with the Post Office as part of our contract with them was very clear – the Post Office also knew there were bugs and errors
“Yes, there was evidence from us.
“We were supporting the Post Office in their prosecutions. There was data given from us to them to support those prosecutions.
“The information shared with the Post Office as part of our contract with them was very clear – the Post Office also knew there were bugs and errors.”
Mr Patterson has been in his current role since 2019 but has worked for Fujitsu since 2010.
Mr Read took over at the Post Office in September 2019, after the scandal emerged, and last year handed back around £54,000 in bonus payments linked to the firm’s co-operation with the public inquiry into the crisis.
The Commons Business and Trade Committee is examining what more can be done to deliver compensation for victims of what has been labelled one of the worst miscarriages of justice in British history.
Earlier Alan Bates, the campaigning former subpostmaster at the centre of the ITV drama Mr Bates Vs The Post Office, told MPs that compensation was “bogged down” and the pace of processing claims was “madness”.
I think it was 53 days before they asked three very simple questions. It’s madness, the whole thing is madness
He said his own compensation process was beset with delays.
“I think it was 53 days before they asked three very simple questions. It’s madness, the whole thing is madness. And there’s no transparency behind it, which is even more frustrating. We do not know what’s happening to these cases once they disappear in there.”
Wrongfully convicted former subpostmistress Jo Hamilton said it was “almost like you’re being retried … it just goes on and on and on”.
Solicitor Neil Hudgell told MPs only three of his former subpostmaster clients who had been criminally convicted had received compensation.
He said: “Within the convicted cohort of clients that we have, of the 73, three have been fully paid out.”
He told the Business and Trade Committee: “It sounds perverse to say this, but I’m not sure that enough resources are thrown at it in terms of the right results into the right areas.
“For example, routinely with the overturned conviction cases it’s taking three to four months to get a response to routine correspondence.”
Lord Arbuthnot, a member of the Horizon compensation advisory board and a long-time campaigner on the issue, said he wanted the redress process finalised by the end of the year.
The Horizon scandal saw more than 700 subpostmasters and subpostmistresses handed criminal convictions after Fujitsu’s faulty Horizon software made it appear as though money was missing at their branches.
The Government has been scrambling to exonerate them and pay out compensation to those affected.
Kevin Hollinrake, the Post Office minister who has argued that Post Office figures found responsible for the scandal should be jailed, is to appear in the afternoon.
