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The Post Office has reached an agreement to extend its contract with Fujitsu to continue using the Horizon IT system for an additional year. In exchange, the Post Office will pay £41m to Fujitsu, allowing them to use Horizon until March 2027. The Horizon system has been at the heart of the Post Office scandal, where over 900 sub-postmasters were wrongly accused of theft due to errors in the software.
Despite the controversy surrounding Horizon, the Post Office is determined to transition away from Fujitsu and the Horizon system as quickly as possible. Plans are already in motion to bring in a new supplier to take over the management of Horizon while a new system is being developed. According to current timelines, a new supplier is expected to be in place by July 2026, but there are talks of extending the contract until 2028 to facilitate a smoother transition.
The replacement of Horizon is still a work in progress, as the Post Office had previously initiated a project called NBIT to create an in-house alternative. However, concerns about escalating costs and complexity led to the abandonment of NBIT shortly after the launch of a turnaround plan by the new Post Office chair, Nigel Railton, in November 2024. As a result, the Post Office is now exploring external software solutions through a procurement process.
In response to the ongoing developments, a government spokesperson emphasized the importance of providing the Post Office with the necessary technology for its transformation. Recognizing the historical under-investment in the Horizon system, efforts are being made to ensure postmasters have the tools required to serve customers effectively in the interim. Fujitsu executives have expressed regret for their role in the scandal, acknowledging the presence of bugs, errors, and defects in the Horizon system since its inception. While they recognize a moral obligation to contribute financially, no specific timeline or amount has been established yet
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