THE firm which developed the scandal-hit Post Office Horizon IT system should pay at least £10 million to a compensation fund by the end of this month, an SNP MP has said.
Marion Fellows, who is chair of the Commons All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on Post Offices and has campaigned on behalf of those affected, made the call after Fujitsu Europe director Paul Patterson appeared before MPs to give evidence.
UK Business Secretary Kemi Badenoch has now written to Fujitsu to demand talks on compensation for the subpostmasters wronged in the Horizon scandal.
She requested a meeting with the company as soon as possible to discuss a compensation package.
READ MORE: Horizon Post Office scandal: Lord Advocate apologises
Patterson told members of the member of the Business and Trade Committee there were “bugs and errors in the system” and apologised for the “appalling miscarriage of justice” when he appeared on Tuesday.
In a letter, Fellows pointed out that he had acknowledged his company has a “moral obligation” to contribute to the financial redress, adding it was vital it was received as soon as possible.
She wrote: “To that end, I would ask if Fujitsu could provide an initial contribution towards financial redress for victims, a minimum of at least £10m before the end of this calendar month.
“The outgoing inquiry will provide clarity over Fujitsu’s level of culpability, but what is needed now is for the parties at fault to do all they can to provide swift redress to those impacted.
“An initial financial contribution towards redress would signify Fujitsu’s desire to see justice finally delivered to the victims of the most widespread miscarriage of justice this country has ever seen.”
Speaking about the “industrial-scale miscarriages of justice”, Fellows added: “What is needed now is for the parties at fault to do all they can to provide swift redress to those affected.
“This should not have come to pass. Given that it did, it should not have taken so long to get to where we are.
“The best thing to do is for all involved to do all they can to work to provide redress as soon as possible.”
READ MORE: PMQs: Rishi Sunak accuses SNP of 'politicising' Horizon scandal
The MP stressed the importance of Fujitsu making such an initial payment, saying that while this “will not yet settle everything” it could be a “positive first step” and would be a “show of good faith, which seems of short supply in this case”.
The Horizon software had first been developed by Fujitsu’s ICL business, and in 1999 was installed by the Post Office in its thousands of sites across the country.
However the Post Office went on to prosecute hundreds of subpostmasters between 1999 and 2015, as it blamed them for financial discrepancies.
Post Office boss Nick Read, who took charge in September 2019, also appeared before MPs on Tuesday.
He blamed a “culture of denial” for the company dragging its feet on compensation, but was criticised for failing to offer sufficient clarity to the committee, including not confirming when the Post Office knew that remote access to the Horizon terminals was possible.
SNP MP Douglas Chapman, a member of the Business and Trade Committee, said: “It’s extraordinary that the Post Office are still prevaricating on giving vital information on their knowledge of issues with the Horizon system given what is now in the public domain and the groundswell of anger and upset from the UK public at what happened to post office workers.
“There are still so many unanswered questions, not least the implications for the Government’s own procurement processes and public confidence in these processes.
“Is there another Horizon scandal sitting in a government department waiting to happen?”
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