Post Office spent £600m to keep using flawed Horizon system
THE POST OFFICE has spent more than £600 million of public money continuing to use the discredited Horizon IT system—despite accepting more than a decade ago that it needed replacing.
New documents reveal that then Prime Minister Tony Blair and senior Labour ministers were warned as far back as 1999 about serious flaws in the original £548 million deal with Fujitsu. A Treasury memo at the time flagged that the Post Office would not own the core computer code, leaving them locked into the supplier and vulnerable to spiralling costs. Officials warned Fujitsu could use the situation to 'drive a costly settlement.'
Since then, the total spent on Horizon contracts has reached £2.5 billion, including £600 million spent since 2012 when the Post Office first admitted it needed to move on from the system. Replacement efforts have repeatedly failed, with a £40 million IBM project abandoned in 2016 and another attempt scrapped in 2022.
Former Roch postmaster: Tim Brentnall
The latest replacement project—an internal system called New Branch IT (NBIT)—has run into delays and ballooning costs, with estimates now topping £1 billion. Despite past failings, the Post Office and Fujitsu are expected to remain in partnership until at least 2030.
The scandal surrounding Horizon continues to grow, following the wrongful prosecution of over 900 sub-postmasters. Although private prosecutions based on Horizon data were halted in 2015, campaigners say the damage done is still being felt by victims across the UK—including here in Pembrokeshire.
One of them is Tim Brentnall, who was just 22 when he and his parents bought the Roch Post Office. In 2010, he was prosecuted after a £22,500 shortfall appeared in the accounts—despite doing nothing wrong. Advised to plead guilty, he received an 18-month suspended sentence and 200 hours of community service. His conviction was quashed in 2021.
Earlier this year, Brentnall told the BBC he was 'in disbelief' after being offered less than 17% of the compensation he had claimed. The offer came with a 50-page letter rejecting much of his legal and forensic case, and over 15,000 documents to sift through. He is now re-submitting the claim.
'There are people far older than me who should be enjoying their lives now,' he said. 'Instead, they're still fighting. People are dying without seeing justice. It's not right.'
The Post Office says it is 'fundamentally changing' as an organisation and has paid out more than £768 million to over 5,100 people affected by the Horizon scandal. However, many victims and campaigners say the compensation process remains slow, unfair, and deeply distressing.
Postal minister Gareth Thomas recently confirmed a further £276.9 million in government funding for the Post Office, including £136 million for future IT projects. He said the continued use of Horizon reflected 'past underinvestment' and that postmasters needed better tools going forward.
A spokesperson for Tony Blair said the former PM took concerns over the Horizon contract seriously at the time and acted on independent advice. 'It is now clear the Horizon product was seriously flawed. Mr Blair has deep sympathy for those affected.'
A separate 1999 memo was also sent to then-Chancellor Gordon Brown, but a spokesperson for Mr Brown said he would not have seen it and had no involvement in awarding the contract.
Despite public statements about reform, doubts remain over whether NBIT will ever be delivered—and whether true justice will ever be achieved for those whose lives were torn apart by the Horizon scandal.
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