Lord Fox
Main Page: Lord Fox (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)Fujitsu: Post Office Horizon Case
Lord Fox Excerpts(1 day, 9 hours ago)
Lords ChamberRead Full debate Read Hansard Text Watch Debate
Lord Leong (Lab)
I share the frustrations my noble friend expresses. The Government are absolutely committed to ensuring that this inquiry takes place, and the findings will be published soon. As he will note, the first volume of the inquiry has been published, and it makes it clear that Fujitsu has an obligation to make compensation for the sufferings of all these postmasters. We are determined to ensure that Fujitsu plays its part.
Lord Fox (LD)
My Lords, it might help if your Lordships understand the scale of our commitment to Fujitsu. On my count, there are 30-plus live UK contracts, worth at least £5 billion through the lives of those contracts. Since the 2019 High Court ruling, HMRC alone has awarded eight contracts to Fujitsu. We do not need an independent inquiry to know that Fujitsu should be paying compensation, so what is stopping the Government pushing it to do that?
Lord Leong (Lab)
The noble Lord touches on several points; let me go through each of them. First, the suggestion that we should simply walk away from existing Fujitsu contracts does not take account of the impact on public services.