Post Office Spends £600M on Faulty Horizon System Despite Replacement Plans

The UK Post Office has spent over £600 million in public funds to maintain the faulty Horizon IT system from Fujitsu, despite efforts to replace it beginning more than a decade ago. A 1999 deal, approved under the Labour government, prevented the Post Office from owning the system's source code, making it dependent on Fujitsu and unable to verify the software's accuracy independently. Senior government officials, including then-Prime Minister Tony Blair and Chancellor Gordon Brown, were warned of these risks before the contract was signed. The Horizon system's flaws led to one of the UK's largest miscarriages of justice, with around 700 sub-postmasters wrongfully prosecuted between 1999 and 2015 based on inaccurate accounting data, convictions later overturned by Parliament. Multiple attempts to develop a replacement have failed due to financial and technical hurdles, leaving the Post Office reliant on Horizon and Fujitsu, with officials warning that ending the contract abruptly would force post offices to shut down. The Post Office has publicly apologized and pledged to eventually transition away from Fujitsu and the Horizon system.