Post Office Horizon IT contract extended for another year

The Submit Workplace has agreed to increase its deal to make use of the controversial Horizon IT system for an additional 12 months.It’s paying an additional £41m to the Japanese-owned firm Fujitsu to make use of Horizon till March 2027.The accounting system has been on the centre of the Submit Workplace scandal through which greater than 900 sub-postmasters have been wrongly prosecuted after defective Horizon software program made it seem like cash was lacking from their department accounts.A Submit Workplace spokesperson mentioned it was “dedicated to shifting away from Fujitsu and off the Horizon system as quickly as potential”.”We’re bringing in a special provider to take over Horizon while a brand new system is developed, and this course of is properly beneath method,” they added. “We anticipate to award a contract for a brand new provider to handle Horizon by July 2026, based on present timelines.”Sources have instructed the BBC the contract may very well be prolonged till 2028 whereas the brand new provider takes over the operating of Horizon, which is utilized by sub-postmasters at branches throughout the UK.However the substitute of Horizon remains to be a good distance off.The Submit Workplace had been engaged on a mission known as NBIT to construct a brand new in-house various, however there have been rising issues about its hovering prices and complexity.NBIT was ditched shortly after new Submit Workplace chair Nigel Railton launched his turnaround plan for the enterprise in November 2024.Submit Workplace bosses have shifted to purchasing software program from exterior suppliers and a procurement course of for this has begun.A authorities spokesperson mentioned: “We’re working as rapidly as potential to make sure the Submit Workplace has the know-how it wants, together with changing Horizon, as a significant a part of the corporate’s wider transformation.”The actual fact they nonetheless use the Horizon system signifies previous under-investment, which may’t be rectified in a single day, so we have to guarantee postmasters have the instruments they should proceed serving their clients within the interim.”Fujitsu executives have apologised for the corporate’s position within the scandal, admitting that Horizon had bugs errors and defects from the beginning.The boss of its European arm, Paul Patterson, has acknowledged that Fujitsu had a “ethical obligation” to contribute financially however no timeline or determine has up to now been set.