'Sorry' Fujitsu boss grilled by MPs over Post Office scandal

MPs at a Commons Business and Trade Committee hearing grilled Fujitsu’s Europe boss Paul Patterson and Post Office boss Nick Read.
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[@portcullis5622]

What he means is: "We are sorry that we have been found out and exposed for what we really are".

[@syttt7925]

And yet he is still better than the PO exec who are still doing the same thing

[@mikeclark4416]

Yes he is sorry alright , Sorry they got caught !

[@paulyoung4422]

Fujitsu should pay all the compensation. The Management and that of The Post Office should serve double what the most prosecuted Sub Post Master received.

[@robertpatrick3350]

Both Fujitsu and the Post Office are responsible and both should compensate and share in the punishments.

[@briangriffiths440]

Agree. Both a responsible.@@robertpatrick3350

[@juztnlast953]

As much as I would love Fujitsu to pay all the compensation, it was Post Office who made all the decisions on how it dealt with sub postmasters. Blaming SPMs for the shortfalls; forcing them to cover the losses; taking SPOs to court with no evidence of crimes; scaring SPMs to settle out of court on the lesser crime of false accounting to avoid a trial PO had scant evidence for; PO spending insane amounts of tax payer money to outspend SPOs in court. Those decisions were not made by Fujitsu.

[@keith8609]

People should face prosecution for what happened to the post masters

[@chanjessiet]

Those auditors and prosecutors

[@fuwingpang5445]

And quite a few politicians too, from all parties. For ignoring these post masters plight for more than 20 years.

[@carjam49]

Restitution is complex, stealing from innocent people is super easy.

[@raphaelandrews3617]

THE total arrogance of the Post Office executives is amazing. They just do not give a darn because they know they will NOT go to jail for the fraud.

[@tasty_fish]

When will these people learn that it’s never a full or meaningful apology until the victims have been fully compensated and those who have done wrong have faced justice. At very least, those who were involved should be on trial facing charges of perverting the course of justice. Why do company bosses always get away with it. Things need to change, but all politicians seem to be deaf. One rule for them, one for the rest of us.

[@davidker7256]

People died and lost everything because of these lying corrupt thieves. Should mean jail time

[@johnlowe-tq6ey]

And it's the tip of the iceberg....every corporation behaves the same...modern slavery treating staff and also customers evilly.

[@mharris7380]

Yes, and life.

[@TL-ph5wg]

Paula knew from the very start. She should be punished

[@paulineharris5701]

Sorry isnt enough

[@ULHIS]

Those people were failed by the PostOffice, failed by fujitsu. Failed by the general public. They all owe these people compensation. They all disgraced them, ruined them, their lives, their families. Bullied them, their kids, drove some to suicide, to mental breakdowns. The shame in it. A disgrace to one and all and all complicit.

[@aloluk]

He's never met a sub-postmaster, but Jo Hamilton is sitting right behind him!!!!

[@Constantinos-Cy]

He put people in prison😦 oh my lord god..

[@mvubu6823]

Not him .. the company he now leads

[@jamesmccallum6770]

If the Horizon helpline was based at Fujitsu, then they directly lied to sub-postmaster when they told them there were no faults and no other sub-postmaster reporting issues. They can't pass that on to the post office. That puts them squarely in the cover up.

[@joedee1863]

So where did the money go to ? SHOW US THE MONEY !

[@Brian-om2hh]

@@joedee1863 It has already been established the money simply found it's way into the profits of the Post Office.... People's pensions, life savings, the lot. All to make up these non-existent "losses"...with the threat of prosecution if they didn't cough up. Despicable, and the lowest of the low. And now we're seeing these smarmy corporate worms attempting a massive damage limitation exercise.....It's sickening. Just watch them walk away smiling after it's all over, with pensions and bonuses intact...while others had their lives ruined.

[@EddieTheH]

​@@joedee1863 Are you OK?

[@joedee1863]

@@EddieTheH - fine, you ok ?

[@TL-ph5wg]

I’m sorry that you continue to seek justice even after 20 years. I’m sorry that you guys never gave up. I’m sorry that it took you guys so long to take us to where I am now.

[@mharris7380]

Ask them about the validation exercises and testing that was done prior to system release and with every update. What were the results? Who did the testing and signed off the system and updates for release?

[@tuck1s]

Very different from the slimy Fujitsu suit a few months ago on Newsnight who was still denying their responsibilities.

[@lugano1999]

While they might be forced to pay compensation, it will no doubt be the case that NONE of Fujitsu's leadership and NONE of the leadership of Post Office are going to face criminal prosecution.

[@MC-nb6jx]

Sadly that’s highly likely😔

[@SashaAlonso_PricklyElder]

I blame the Post Office & especially Paula Vennells (supposedly an Anglican Priest!?!?) more than Fujitsu tbh. I’m sure part of their contract with the Royal Mail was to shut up when issues were raised - & I doubt Parliament would be doing anything had it not been for Alan Bates, the Alliance of those sub postmasters & ITV. It’s truly sickening & I’m wondering who, if anyone, in the government knew & covered up. At the end of the day this hasn’t just cost those affected financially, it has cost lives & will ultimately cost taxpayers since the govt will have no choice but to pay the compensation EVERY single person affected deserves.

[@grahamsclater9988]

He and the whole board should be in jail..............

[@odeode4338]

He wasn‘t there at the time.

[@angieflynn5354]

Wow are these people going to get away with this how is this possible when innocent people have been put in prison innocent people have suffered so bad even suicides over what they did

[@sugarfreee]

The bosses all need to be in jail! Despicable!!!

[@terryhughes1355]

corporate crime is never punished

[@willienelsongonzalez4609]

Now that Fujitsu have finally admitted their guilt they can assist the government in paying significant damages and reparations to all the sub postmasters the were adversely affected by Fujitsu’s deeply flawed Horizon system. The taxpayers should not foot the total bill, that should all come out of Fujitsu’s deep pockets. Additionally, all Fujitsu systems that are used by government organisations should be subject to a thorough assessment of its performance.

[@SendyTheEndless]

Whenever corporate corruption CAN go on, it almost certainly IS. It's not a bug, it's a feature.

[@elfboy29]

These new guys just they care. We want the guys at the time. Can't wait Vennals and Fujitsu bring it.

[@bubbles2153]

These people are unbelievable. They’ve lied and falsely prosecuted people in full knowledge that they were innocent. They all belong in jail!

[@pqrstzxerty1296]

Don't forget Fujutisu's full name is Fujitsu Siemens Wincor Nixnorf

[@jamesmccallum6770]

We will see in the coming months if these words have any substance. However, it should be noted that this type of frankness isn't common from large organisations. The Japanese culture would call for a hari-kari type of response for bringing such shame on the company.

[@mohsinakhan7668]

Fujitsu should pay all the compensation and should never be allowed to take any more government contracts. The post office executives should go to jail. It’s so disgusting what’s happened

[@RayRay79]

Who and when will be held accountable in a jail cell….

[@MC-nb6jx]

Well if they say sorry that’s all good then eh??🙄 They’re not sorry, they’re in damage limitation mode🤷🏻‍♂️

[@odeode4338]

That‘s a key point why so often apologies are not given. The fault is not on them but on those that think automatically because an apology was issued that this is also an admission of guilt. Because of that the incentive to not apologise until convicted in a court of law is so much greater than the humane path of apologising. This is a general observation, not specific to this scandal.

[@bads42]

The biggest problem here is it has taken so long to get to the truth the people around now in these companies don’t know. The mp,s have missed the boat, we need the people at the time answering these question.

[@jimg2850]

You knew there were glitches, why did you sit by and do nothing about it? I don't know. What kind of an answer is that? The current system is perfect and doesn't need any developers any more! Does this Fujitsu guy have an IT background at all?

[@monkeymagic4555]

They should be paying the compensation package UNIQUE and VERY generous to each individual cost along the way AND ALSO compensating UK Government for damage caused over the actual cost of investigation and legality cost.Remember Royal Mail is now gone

[@paulembleton1733]

To be fair Fujitsu could stonewall and make much more of the failings of the Post Office. After all, the buck stops at PO management rather than those they hired, and their defence against criminal prosecution might only rest on whether they were mislead by Fujitsu. I’m a developer and have written networked accounting systems (much smaller scale). There are always bugs, though the worst of my accounting errors was choosing the wrong data type which led to discrepancies of pennies. This sounds like partial transactions are being committed instead of rolled back, but that would be obvious from simple queries of the database. I find it difficult to believe no one in PO management realised it was the system before blaming honest people. Ps can’t seem to find what DBMS was being used. Anyone happen to know? Or was is custom?

[@philw2884]

Fujitsu and Fujitsu boss need to put your money where your mouth is along with the post office and the Crown prosecution service and compensate everyone involved

[@raphaelandrews3617]

not just compensation BOTH the Fujitsu and Post Office knew the computer system was faulty but lied again and again and again.

[@geoffbentley8774]

Cps wasn't involved with the prosecutions,the Post Office has it's own prosecutors.

[@annehinde9302]

Everyone involved should be the ones compensating the poor victims.This is disgraceful these innocent peoples lives ruined.😢😢😢💔💔💔💔🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏.

[@petebateman143]

"Sorry we got caught", is what he means.

[@sharkinadark]

It sound like a criminal somewhere knew what was going on ….some one should be jailed with out a doubt

[@chiefrocka8604]

Bet that was tricky Like shutting the door on a dead postmasters shop that is after they couldn’t take no more

[@grahamsclater9988]

Apologies, when they knew all along what was happening and failed to act

[@nobbycheeseman2915]

Well Mr Fujitsu face. Your company will have policies and rules saying things like "everyone is responsible for each others safety, everyone is responsible for ensuring rules are followed, everyone is responsible for making sure spills are mopped up. So that means, now, everyone at Fujitsu is responsible for compensating the postmasters, and doing whatever they can to mop up this mess. It works both ways, when it benefits the company and when it doesn't. Get your hands in your pockets and pull out the dosh and get all the information together that tells everyone what went on. You should have done this already and the fact you haven't done it voluntarily shows you aren't really sorry.

[@victorjames7]

🦉🐯 They got caught, now they are just trying to avoid jail. They should be on trial for the crimes that they committed against innocent people! Or am I missing something?

[@odeode4338]

They (CEO etc) never go to jail. In this instance it would also be wrong, he wasn‘t the boss at the time.

[@openbabel]

Will this be the same committee examining the closure by the post office of several thousand post office accounts used to pay the most vulnerable blind severely disabled children and adults who have been left destitute,starving, hospitalized as a result they have not seen any income since 2nd june 2022. Will the group compensation for this legally protected group who have had their lives threatened also come from the Fiijitsu compensation scheme? Will the collapse of the horizen system effect the payments of disability incomes through the post office branches since June 2022 ? under article 11 for human rights for those with disabilities the legislation under the European convention make immediate settlement to these sorely disabled bling adults from the monies allocated by Fujitsu ?

[@robertnewell5057]

I guess I'm going to be unpopular, but this bloke did a good job of full apology. At the end of the day, their program was faulty and they assisted the PO, BUT the PO were responsible for ruthless hounding of their employees, not Fujitsu.

[@kevingilhooley2064]

Definitely disagree with you here.. You could see the anguish and retinence on his face in having to say sorry ,and backhandedly passing on the incompetence and fraudulent dealings that Fujitsu had with the PO.....this guy was handsomely paid for his ignorance.... let's not forget

[@joedee1863]

Robertnewell sounds like he works for Fujitsu.

[@may-ky6jl]

Horizon. The investigators concluded that Horizon contained faults that ... The Horizon accounting system was developed by ICL UK company founded by UK Government before Fujitsu took over.

[@JanetShone-x6h]

No excuse, not sorry enough for the people who suffered because of your incompetence. There should be no “contributions they should pay full compensation claims, by the way they ruined peoples lives!

[@alanbower9296]

TAKEN 20 YEARS TO SAY SORRY

[@salmak586]

Sue them

[@cobbler40]

Will any of the execs be brought to account ?

[@DIVERBLOKE1]

He had to be asked if they were morally responsible. He didn't offer that originally.

[@hernandotorres1234]

Sorry he got caught

[@DrVickyHarris]

Legislation to penalise any lawyer whose actions knowingly obscure or delay the disclosure of any fact, should be fined or struck off in the worst cases. Being able to ruin people by buying legal expertise must be criminalised. It is pure malice.

[@nicolasstevens5978]

it's more than Post Office did. they should all get prison sentences. The 25% bonus + interest should be clawed back from PO directors

[@Julieoscar1]

An apology doesn’t make my health better or my job choices better.. I will never work in a financial position again.. something I enjoyed and worked for. AND when is the truth going to come out.. the sub offices are still using the system with the same problems for gods sake. !!

[@Brian-om2hh]

Sorry hardly cuts it. Lives and reputations have been ruined. Some lives have even been lost. An apology isn't even remotely close to what you owe these people. And £600k each is nowhere close to being enough compensation. Start thinking 3 to 4 times that, and you'll be getting nearer.....

[@cliffordchapman4636]

It really is like a broken record with these guys prefacing their words with an apology to everyone the Post Office treated so wrongly, hundreds of innocent victims. If only the government made an immediate cash payment that covered not only the amounts they were fined and lost but their actuarial estimations and calculations so that true recompense can be made for the enormous losses that spilled over into the many years that followed their wrongful convictions.

[@ronfullerton532]

When do they call for evidence from Fujitsu in Japan, did they know of any problems with their system,when evidently there were from the very start. Who signed off the contract?

[@B.A.767]

Being sorry is NOT GOOD ENOUGH. Now the culprits who are the very high earners in the Post Office, are breaking the Law.

[@neilw259]

Sorry not enough. Time to pay out millions in compensation to victims.

[@davidmcivor2761]

“Mōshiwake arimasen” would have been the better way of saying it.

[@DessieTots]

For that we got found out and are now sorry that our appalling behaviour has finally caught up with us. So we have taken the tactic of going deeper into the s**t since there is no other option now that we’ve been exposed for the criminals we are.

[@grayflight9424]

Fella you have to do the combined time that these innocent people got sentenced to your corrupt end of

[@shaungilmartin1505]

the old "sorry" routine isn't gonna cut it on this one.....jail time is required

[@juztnlast953]

Did Fujitsu UK not think sub postmasters were being blamed for the shortfalls the bugs were creating? Did Fujitsu UK not see the list of sub postmaster victims in the articles coming out of Computer Weekly? Surely forthcoming articles by Computer Weekly about Horizon software would get their attention. What was Fujitsu doing to ensure its employees were keeping quiet about the back door patches? Why was Fujitsu obsessed with security at its Bracknell office? Was it to keep remote access employees from talking to the other people in the building? To keep remote access workers from talking to the help line workers who were telling sub postmasters that remote access was impossible?

[@Simon-im2zn]

At around 2:10 he states that within the contract they (Fujitsu) had with POL pre 2010 it was put to POL there was 'known' bugs/errors in the Horizon system so an admittal there, so why the further questioning on this matter for it to be challeged only to use a 'gut feeling' response?

[@rubinus6674]

They should go to jail. Life sentence.

[@mvubu6823]

Refreshing clarity Refreshing honesty Politicians could learn from them

[@odeode4338]

It‘s easy. He wasn‘t there at the time. It would sound different if he was.

[@mvubu6823]

@@odeode4338 well he wasn't, so what would expect him to do? But what I see here, he's taken responsibility

[@odeode4338]

@@mvubu6823 no, I agree with you. It was as good as it gets. I just wanted to point out why he could give these types of response. It would have been unlikely the same would he have been there at the time.

[@hien323fable]

Let me translate for the layman - "Fujitsu and the Post Office are sorry for getting caught for lying and trying to hide the lies, we will now pay compensation, but only after we are forced to".

[@Galacticmaster]

They are only sorry they got caught lying about the defects in their own product.

[@frankcarter6427]

hilariously bad hair dye too

[@martinhawley2401]

He,about open and transparent as,tricky Ricky sunak said on the steps of number 10,

[@plbyrne]

It is highly likely that a serial offender (s) within Fujitsu or the Post office caused all of this.

[@chanjessiet]

That Chair is sassy! I like him.

[@derekmclean5603]

My instinct on all this scandalous affair is to scream out for Fujitsu and Post Office organisation plus the corrupt Directors, managers and investigators to be sued for every penny they have. This will not however do anything to compensate the families who’s loved one’s committed suicide over their unjustified prosecutions, the lost life’s that were torn away, the mental anguish, depression and tattered reputation, abuse and bullying suffered by the children of postmanagers and the financial hardship they suffered over the 20 year plus timeline that this went on. For Paula Vennells to be a member of the clergy and preside over this and indeed participate in this sordid affair, she should be struck off as a vile human being

[@chriswilson3126]

Innocent people went to prison over this. People killed themselves and lives ruined. But they'll write a cheque and it'll be like nothing ever happened.

[@GrahameHall]

Your apology means nothing! Just empty words. Full, restitution now!

[@annmccrindle]

Sorry isn’t good enough

[@richardbyrnes8398]

Prison time, baby.

[@kevinclarke9955]

Digress, Some SMART meters are run by Fujitsu. I reckon those systems should be looked at by Second Sight.

[@TL-ph5wg]

How much do you get paid on a monthly bases ? I don’t know. 😮😂

[@Laura-yd3ds]

'I don't know', not suitable answer.

[@anandpalled]

i guess the company belongs to Japanese people ask them to apologies as well

[@jackiethomas8200]

They are not an ethical company as they doing it to victims of child support payments. 100, s have committed suicide. And are in prison. Fujitsu are part of infosys infosys owned by Richie Sinai father in law and wife . Wake up people this rabbit hole runs deep

[@philleggitt3005]

Fujitsu; Lets see how little of the truth we need to let out, preferable as late as possible too...

[@lawrencepeak8309]

Would anyone trust these men.

[@chris-4566]

Fujitsu will be rebranding with a new name but same board of directors (apart from the odd scapegoat)

[@Zolipants]

Prison for fraud!

[@neilcrawford8303]

Nicholas Reed just came across as a pompous buffoon.

[@muirislandjim453]

Aye, no bother lads 👍🏻

[@annmccrindle]

Apologies there a joke should b in jail

[@lionairvine870]

You’re sorry…that all right then ……….🤮😳

[@saulstewart7902]

i cannot hear this you tube ?

[@howardlewis1005]

What....A...Joke...."We are really sorry"...Yeah, sorry they got caught. And the wheel turns, we will all forget and they will keep on earning millions and millions of £££ and nothing changes. This is the world we live in.

[@nigeladams8508]

Respect for Fujitsu to be honest, the post office could learn a lot from them.

[@jackthegamer4019]

“Honesty” Wake up mate! They helped prosecute innocent people. They are only apologising because they were found out and stand to lose contracts

[@davidrobertson5700]

Why the sound dropouts ?

[@extrude22]

Problems with the audio equipment in the room.

[@annmccrindle]

😱😱😱😱😱😱😱

[@annmccrindle]

He rant on n on a lot of BS

[@karenhockingkarenhocking9716]

I'm glad that they've admitted their faults and had the decency to apologise, this person does seem to realise that his company should be held accountable, which is refreshing.. And in stark contrast to the post office and other government officials. Having admitted there were faults in the system, from day one, which the post office knew about.. gives the impression, that they colluded with the post office to keep quiet. There was obviously a huge financial incentive to keep the post office happy.. And huge losses to consider if they didn't! They did whatever the post office asked of them to cover up these errors.. providing them with data as evidence that made the system look 'robust' whenever they wanted to prosecute a sub-postmaster. That crime alone should be punishable with a long prison sentence.. How many years is just, for ruining so many lives? We need a full criminal investigation of all parties involved and those found responsible should be sentenced to the fullest extent of the law.