Fujitsu has won a place on a UK government framework despite its commitment not to compete for new public sector contracts during the ongoing inquiry into the Post Office Horizon scandal.
In the wake of the historic scandal surrounding the Post Office Horizon system – which Fujitsu built and supports – the Japanese tech biz issued a bidding moratorium until the probe concludes.
Nonetheless, official documents published in the final week of December show Fujitsu has bagged a seat on a framework with a total value of up to £984 million across all winning suppliers. It secured positions on two lots of the arrangement for digital services with SSEN Transmission, the trading name of Scottish Hydro Electric Transmission, which is owned by Scottish and Southern Electricity Networks (SSEN), a limited company that organized the framework.
A tender for the agreement – which offers suppliers an indicative level of business and government buyers at negotiated prices – launched in June 2025, months after Fujitsu promised not to bid for new government work owing to its role in the Horizon debacle. Although let by a private sector company, the SSEN contract is legally treated as conducting government business under a process governed by the Procurement Act 2023.
Horizon is an EPOS and back-end finance system that was first implemented by ICL, a UK tech firm majority-owned by Fujitsu in the 1990s and fully acquired in 1998. It has undergone two subsequent upgrades. From 1999 until 2015, around 736 subpostmasters were wrongfully prosecuted and convicted over Horizon errors, devastating lives in the process. A statutory inquiry into the mass miscarriage of justice launched in 2021 and is ongoing. Its early findings suggest 13 suicides may be linked to the prosecutions.
At the beginning of 2024, a TV dramatization brought the scandal to wider public attention, after which the government introduced legislation to quash remaining convictions. A number had already been overturned in the courts.
In January and February 2024, Fujitsu wrote to the government's commercial arm, committing not to bid for contracts with new government customers until the inquiry reports.
In a letter to the Cabinet Office dated February 6, 2024, Dave Riley, Fujitsu's head of UK public sector, confirmed [PDF]: "There is no limitation or caveat on our intention to pause bidding for work with new government customers until the inquiry has reported... We would only bid for work with a new government customer if asked to do so."
Fujitsu argues the commitment does not apply to the SSEN contract. A spokesperson told The Register: "Fujitsu's inclusion in the supplier list for this framework supports potential extensions or rebidding with existing customers. We continue to work with the UK government to ensure we adhere to the voluntary restrictions we put in place regarding bidding for new contracts while the Post Office Inquiry is ongoing."
Fujitsu also won a £125 million ($167 million) contract in April last year to build Northern Ireland's new land registry system despite its voluntary moratorium on contract bids.
Continuing bidding for the Northern Ireland project was within the terms of its voluntary moratorium, Fujitsu argued, because the procurement process had started in 2022, and by January 2024 it was already the preferred bidder.
The Northern Ireland land registry project was a new contract for a new buyer, and the government later confirmed it did not specifically request Fujitsu to continue bidding for the contract. ®
Source: The register