Post Office Horizon Inquiry: Volume 1

Lord Foulkes of Cumnock Excerpts

Thursday 17th July 2025 Lords Chamber

[Lord Foulkes of Cumnock (Lab Co-op)]

My Lords, I was astonished by the contribution from the Opposition Front Bench, not just because, as the noble Baroness from the Liberal Democrats said, I had assumed this was specifically on the report and not on the Green Paper, but because the noble Lord was talking about the future of the Post Office, and indeed mentioned Royal Mail, without acknowledging that the demise of the Post Office and the Royal Mail has been under the Tory party over the last 14 years. It has. If we look at other countries, we see a much better system continuing in most of our competitors.

I want to raise two points, the first of which was raised by the noble Baroness from the Liberal Democrats. The Minister said that the Government expect Fujitsu to contribute and that discussions are under way, but has Fujitsu been given a deadline by which this must be agreed, and how much do we expect it to contribute? It needs to be a great deal; otherwise, the taxpayer is undertaking the cost again, as we have done with so many things, and as we are going to have to do with the Afghan compensation, and it should not be the taxpayer in this case—it should be Fujitsu.

My second question is about prosecutions. Everyone seems to get away without any prosecutions in these kinds of things. Will the Minister talk to the Attorney-General and ask when some of the people who were responsible for the terrible tragedy that so many sub-postmasters and sub-postmistresses suffered will be held to account? It is about time that they were.

[Baroness Jones of Whitchurch (Lab)]

I thank my noble friend. He is quite right that this scandal occurred over many years, and it has taken a long time for both the previous Government and now this one to really get to grips with the action that needs to be taken. That is why the report from Sir Wyn is so important to provide extra clarity on the further actions that we need to take. My noble friend talked about Fujitsu. As I have said, the Government are having active discussions with Fujitsu about its contribution. We are still awaiting Sir Wyn’s second report to get a better sense of the complete culpability of Fujitsu, and we cannot pre-empt that, but I think Fujitsu recognises that it has a role in making amends, and we are in active discussions with it.

My noble friend asked about criminal prosecutions and accountability. I think everybody shares his frustration that this is taking so long, but the action on accountability must await the conclusions of the second part of the Williams inquiry—obviously, we all await those with interest. He will know as well that the Metropolitan Police investigation, which is independent of government, is ongoing. The Met is a core participant in the Williams inquiry, but it also has around 100 staff engaged on Horizon matters, looking at whether there are any criminal issues that need further following up, and I know that it will be doing that in a very active way.