Post Office Horizon IT contract prolonged for an additional yr | EUROtoday

The Post Office has agreed to increase its deal to make use of the controversial Horizon IT system for an additional yr.

It is paying an extra £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 Post Office scandal wherein greater than 900 sub-postmasters had been wrongly prosecuted after defective Horizon software program made it seem like cash was lacking from their department accounts.

A Post Office spokesperson mentioned it was “committed to moving away from Fujitsu and off the Horizon system as soon as possible”.

“We are bringing in a different supplier to take over Horizon whilst a new system is developed, and this process is well under way,” they added.

“We expect to award a contract for a new supplier to manage Horizon by July 2026, according to current timelines.”

Sources have instructed the BBC the contract might be prolonged till 2028 whereas the brand new provider takes over the working of Horizon, which is utilized by sub-postmasters at branches throughout the UK.

But the substitute of Horizon remains to be a good distance off.

The Post Office had been engaged on a undertaking referred to as NBIT to construct a brand new in-house different, however there have been rising considerations about its hovering prices and complexity.

NBIT was ditched shortly after new Post Office chair Nigel Railton launched his turnaround plan for the enterprise in November 2024.

Post Office bosses have shifted to purchasing software program from exterior suppliers and a procurement course of for this has begun.

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 “moral obligation” to contribute financially however no timeline or determine has to date been set.