Calls are mounting on Fujitsu to repay the “fortune” the Post Office scandal cost UK taxpayers.
No 10 said that Rishi Sunak “fully intends” to make the IT giant behind the faulty Horizon software foot the bill if it is found culpable.
Mr Sunak announced on Wednesday that hundreds of subpostmasters in England and Wales would have their names cleared by the end of the year under blanket legislation to be introduced within weeks.
Those whose convictions are quashed are eligible for a £600,000 compensation payment, or potentially more if they go through a process of having their claim individually assessed.
Ministers have set aside up to £1 billion for compensation.
Justice Secretary Alex Chalk said the government will want to “secure proper recompense on behalf of the taxpayer” if the public inquiry delivers a damning verdict on the firm.
Mr Chalk suggested that Fujitsu will have to foot a large part of the compensation bill if the inquiry finds the “scale of the incompetence is as we might imagine”.
He said the government would wait for the conclusions of the inquiry, chaired by retired judge Sir Wyn Williams, before it decides what action to take against the company.
“But bluntly, if the scale of the incompetence is as we might imagine, then I simply would want to secure proper recompense on behalf of the taxpayer,” the cabinet minister told ITV.
“It’s absolutely right that there should be justice across the piece – yes for the subpostmasters which we’re talking about today – but frankly also for the taxpayer. This has cost and will cost a fortune.”
If Fujitsu is found to be at fault, it “should face the consequences”, Mr Chalk added, in a sign ministers could launch legal action against the Japanese company.
Energy Secretary, Claire Coutinho, echoed the calls, saying: “I’d like to see whoever is at fault contribute. That is why we set up an independent inquiry that will report back.
“Once we’ve got clear evidence on who is accountable, I think it’s really important that they contribute.”
While the government’s proposals were widely welcomed, the Prime Minister is facing increasing calls to go further and bar
Fujitsu from securing Government contracts and pursue the firm for payments.
Over the past four years Fujitsu has won 101 contracts worth £2 billion including £36 million for an extension to the contract for Horizon, according to the procurement analysts Tussell.
The government has removed Fujitsu from its list of preferred suppliers, but the firm is still able to win contracts through the normal procurement process.
The Horizon software started to be rolled out in Post Office branches across the UK in 1999 and over the subsequent years a series of subpostmasters were prosecuted over missing funds.
In 2019 the High Court ruled that Horizon contained a number of “bugs, errors and defects” and there was a “material risk” that shortfalls in Post Office branch accounts were caused by the system.
The inquiry has been under way since 2021 but the scandal hit the headlines after ITV aired a dramatisation of the events last week.
It told the story of how more than 700 branch managers were convicted of false accounting, theft and fraud based on faulty software, over 15 years.
More than 100 new potential victims of the scandal have since come forward, prompted by the programme and subsequent coverage.
Fujitsu said it was fully committed to supporting the inquiry to learn from the events stretching back two decades.
“The inquiry has reinforced the devastating impact on postmasters’ lives and that of their families, and Fujitsu has apologised for its role in their suffering,” the firm said.
