The Horizon IT system has cost the Post Office over £600m in public funds to continue using, despite plans to move away from it over a decade ago. The original deal with Fujitsu in 1999, under pressure from the Labour government at the time, left the Post Office without ownership of the core code for Horizon. This lack of ownership hindered the Post Office’s ability to switch suppliers and led to significant miscarriages of justice involving hundreds of sub-postmasters.
Warnings were raised to senior Labour government officials, including former Prime Minister Sir Tony Blair, about potential issues with the deal before it was signed. The Post Office, owned by the government, faced challenges in replacing the Horizon system due to the high costs associated with acquiring the code from Fujitsu or building a new system from scratch. Despite attempts to transition to a system developed by IBM in 2016, which failed at a cost of £40m, the Post Office continued its contract with Fujitsu, costing an
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