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Shameless Fujitsu boss confident firm will be back in ‘good books’ in 18 months

Pressure is mounting on Fujitsu as its internal culture and lack of genuine regret over its part in the Post Office scandal are revealed by Computer Weekly

Karl Flinders
By
Published: 14 Oct 2025 13:15

A member of Fujitsu’s top team of executives told staff he expects the firm to experience about 12 to 18 months of “flux” in the UK before getting back into “everybody’s good books”. He said this will come after Fujitsu headquarters pays its contribution to the costs of the Post Office scandal.

The comment came in July this year, days after the publication of a report that linked the scandal, which Fujitsu fuelled, to 13 suicides, 10 attempted suicides and 59 people contemplating suicide.

As revealed by Computer Weekly last week, in a recording, the business leader, whose identity is known to Computer Weekly, described the first report from the Post Office Horizon scandal public inquiry, which linked Fujitsu’s software to the suicides, as “not that bad”.

• Read more: Fujitsu boss said Post Office inquiry report wasn’t ‘that bad’, despite link to suicides •

In the same meeting recording, heard by Computer Weekly, the now departed member of Fujitsu’s top UK leadership team also said he expects the company to return to normal trading in as little as a year.

He told colleagues: “My personal prediction [is] 12 to 18 months of this sort of flux, and then once we’ve actually made the contribution [towards scandal costs], I think there will be the whole self-cleaning process, and then I think we should be back to normal trading terms.

“I still feel as an organisation in the UK, we are built to service the public sector – our delivery model, our people, our capability. Less so for the private sector…”

Fujitsu’s history in the government sector dates back to its acquisition of British IT company ICL in the 1990s. In its most recent financial year, it made sales worth £450m to the UK public sector.

“I’m keen that we don’t lose that advantage as well, while we go through the pipe cleaning, the self-cleaning, and we get back into everybody’s good books,” said the business leader in the July meeting.

It is way past time that the government recognised that Fujitsu is not a fit and proper organisation to be involved in government contracts
James Arbuthnot, Conservative MP

The executive, who is leaving Fujitsu, apologised for his comments via a company email account: “I am very sorry if my words have caused harm to any of the victims of the Post Office Horizon scandal. I am not involved in, or responsible for, Fujitsu’s response to the Post Office Horizon IT Inquiry. This was my own personal speculation that I shared with my team as part of a private and informal discussion.”

But one Fujitsu worker said: “I didn’t hear anything from any other leader about the public inquiry report, but based on their other behaviour regarding subpostmasters, employees, etc, he wasn’t a rogue voice, he just spoke without the corporate filter that usually hides their lack of empathy and indifference behind polished, PR remorse.”

A Fujitsu UK spokesperson confirmed the senior business leader had left the company, but did not give any reason for his exit. “We thank [him] for his efforts and wish him every success for the future,” they said. 

Peer James Arbuthnot, who has campaigned for justice for affected subpostmasters for over 15 years, asked: “…[Fujitsu] expect to get back into the nation’s good books? Really?”

He listed Fujitsu’s responsibilities for what unfolded over the 25 years of the Post Office scandal.

“It was Fujitsu’s software and hardware that failed to work and that caused false figures to land the subpostmasters in such terrible trouble. It was Fujitsu’s evidence in court that the software and hardware were not to blame,” said Arbuthnot.

“It was Fujitsu that said they could not remotely alter the subpostmasters’ accounts when they were doing so on an industrial scale. And then Fujitsu watched silently as subpostmasters were sued, prosecuted, imprisoned and, in the most tragic cases, took their own lives.”

• Read more: Fujitsu’s role in the Post Office scandal: Everything you need to know •

He told Computer Weekly: “They have not shown the smallest bit of remorse for this, and they have not paid a penny in compensation. It is way past time that the government recognised that Fujitsu is not a fit and proper organisation to be involved in government contracts.”

Reacting to a LinkedIn post by Arbuthnot about last week’s Computer Weekly eposé of the internal Fujitsu meeting, Clark Vasey, who was head of corporate affairs at Fujitsu from 2014 until this year, said: “Doing the right thing is always the right thing for a business to do. If there was a genuine desire to do that, [Fujitsu] would have acted long before now.

“The comments are shocking, but speak to a deliberate and well-established approach to this scandal. Avoiding consequences at whatever cost is the logical conclusion anyone can draw about their strategy. By their actions, [it is clear] UK leadership care little for the victims, their families, the taxpayer or indeed their own employees.”

Soon after the ITV drama of the Post Office scandal stirred the public and government in January 2024, Fujitsu announced it would pause bidding for government contracts until completion of the statutory public inquiry into the scandal, which had already been running for two years.

But, as revealed by Computer Weekly in April last year, Fujitsu instructed staff how to get around its own ban through technicalities. The recording this July revealed the top team executive reaffirming that staff could continue to bid for government contracts through partner firms.

There has been a decline in Fujitsu’s UK public sector business, with, for example, its “cash cow” HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) plotting a move away from the supplier through a contract worth £500m, designed to exit the supplier’s services. The tender from May this year is the clearest sign that HMRC is ready to break away and is looking for a supplier for a 10-year Data Centre Exit (DCE) contract, which will begin in April 2026.

Furthermore, Fujitsu will no longer service the Post Office when its contract comes to an end in March next year, ending a flow of billions of pounds of taxpayer cash to the supplier. But the top executive’s comments suggest Fujitsu is confident of winning substantial business in the sector, which accounts for half its revenues.

Private sector organisations have also become conscious of the implications of working with the scandal-tainted supplier. For example, Fujitsu lost out on a contract with British Gas owner Centrica after the company’s board, fearful of reputational damage, blocked it, despite the troubled supplier being the preferred bidder.

Fujitsu is trying to repair its reputation by investing heavily in a PR campaign.

In April 2024, months after the ITV drama, Computer Weekly revealed that Fujitsu had spent £27m on a project known as Holly, established to help the supplier through the Post Office scandal ramifications, with the contracting of public relations, business ethics and law firms.

The supplier is still focused on its reputation. During the recorded meeting, the Fujitsu executive said: “This is a time for us to actually go out and start getting that Fujitsu story out there. So hopefully, there will be a point of view that we start putting out that gives our customers the confidence that they did the right thing by standing by us and backing us, because they could have also had some other reactions.”

During the meeting, the top executive said part two of the public inquiry report “will be critical” to the company.

The second, more substantial report, due next year, will cover the remaining six phases. Pertinent to Fujitsu’s role, the remaining phases covered issues including the Horizon IT system’s history, its operation, and legal actions against subpostmasters.

When the second part of the public inquiry report is published next year, Fujitsu will be exposed to huge public pressure.

The Post Office scandal was first exposed by Computer Weekly in 2009, revealing the stories of seven subpostmasters and the problems they suffered due to the accounting software (see timeline of Computer Weekly articles about the scandal below).

Timeline: Computer Weekly articles about the scandal since 2009

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