Fujitsu has parted company with its UK head of charitable partnerships and restructured how it engages with charities, at a time when victims of the Post Office scandal are waiting for the support they were promised nearly a year ago.
One source said the new way of working would mean less for charities as responsibility for donation decisions is put on employees.
Craig Hall, Fujitsu’s UK head of corporate charity partnerships, has been laid off and, according to a LinkedIn post, he is looking for new opportunities.
Hall also recently posted about Fujitsu’s new approach to giving to charities, through its new Impact in the Community Charity Support Funding Programme, which starts in January. “Through this programme, employees can apply internally for funds to support various community activities, such as sponsoring a sports team, collaborating with a charity, or providing support for a school,” he wrote.
“As an organisation that touches millions of lives every day, Fujitsu recognises its significant responsibility to address social issues impacting the communities in which we operate. We view our engagement with community stakeholders as vital to securing long-term sustainability for our organisation. The work we do is guided not only by the needs of communities, but also by issues important to Fujitsu.”
A source told Computer Weekly: “It’s public relations spin. Fujitsu is shifting corporate responsibility to individual employees and gutting the scale and ambition of charitable efforts. It’s prioritising financial savings over sustained meaningful impact.”
In the LinkedIn post announcing his departure from Fujitsu, Hall listed awards that Fujitsu has won for its charity work with Autistica, Macmillan Cancer Support and Action for Children.
Computer Weekly asked Fujitsu if Hall will be replaced and how his departure affects its charity work. In response, it said: “Fujitsu doesn’t comment on individual employees, so we don’t have a statement to provide in this instance.”
This comes at a time when victims of the Post Office Horizon scandal are waiting for Fujitsu to commit financial and other support, after its hand in a scandal that wrecked thousands of lives.
Boss on his knees
Fujitsu’s European boss, Paul Patterson, appeared before a Parliamentary select committee and the Post Office scandal public inquiry in January. This was just after ITV’s Post Office scandal drama hit the airwaves, angering a nation and getting the government to finally act with some vigour.
He told MPs at the inquiry that Fujitsu was “morally obligated” to contribute to financial redress for victims of the scandal. No commitment has yet been made.
During phase four of the public inquiry in January, Patterson was asked by Sam Stein KC, representing scandal victims, whether Fujitsu would consider what else it could do beyond financial redress to support victims and their families in the future.
“You may want to think that what could be done by Fujitsu is supporting people in the future, subpostmasters in future, [the] entrepreneurial endeavours [of] their families or in education,” he said. “Will Fujitsu consider that type of support?”
Patterson answered: “If I was to be able to engage in that with subpostmasters and their representatives, [that] would be absolutely something we would like to consider. I think skills in our country, without jumping too far, are very important, and I think there are things that we can do in our technology world that may or may not be of help to subpostmasters and their associated families. So I would engage in that conversation.”
In March, Katie Downey, the daughter of former subpostmaster and victim of the scandal Tony Downey, and others set up the Lost Chances for Subpostmaster Children (LCSC) campaign group. This followed Patterson’s promise of support for the families of victims.
Patterson met the group in August, in what Downey described as an “emotionally draining day”. She said at the time the group felt heard and listened to, and left the meeting feeling as though they had made an impact. But no help or support has been offered since.
According to Neil Hudgell, a lawyer at Hudgell Solicitors, which represents the LCSC group, Fujitsu has recently been in contact, but offered nothing in the way of commitments. “In the last few days, I received an email from Fujitsu telling us they would tell us the next step before the end of the year,” said Hudgell.
Fujitsu’s Horizon software and its errors are at the heart of the Post Office scandal. Subpostmasters were blamed for unexplained account shortfalls, which were caused by errors in Fujitsu’s software. Fujitsu even gave evidence in court supporting the Post Office’s false claim that Horizon errors did not cause unexplained losses, which helped wrongly convict subpostmasters of financial crimes.
During the public inquiry however, Patterson admitted to Fujitsu’s part in the scandal, telling MPs and victims: “We were involved from the start; we did have bugs and errors in the system, and we did help the Post Office in their prosecutions of subpostmasters. For that, we are truly sorry.”
Gloves are out
But in his second appearance at the public inquiry earlier this month, Patterson was more combative. He also revealed that there is currently a standstill agreement over potential civil litigation between the supplier and the Post Office, meaning the two organisations have agreed not to take legal action against each other for certain period of time.
During the hearing, Patterson hinted at Fujitsu’s negotiating position, having heard more evidence in the inquiry over the course of this year: “I think from my standpoint, and my company’s standpoint in Tokyo, we felt it was a moral obligation. Now, I said that back in January, and we have learnt an awful lot over several months of this inquiry about what other people and organisations did or did not do,” he said.
Fujitsu’s UK operation has seen a huge decline in public sector business since it agreed to pause bidding for new government contracts.
According to figures from public sector IT market watcher Tussell, from 1 January to 20 November 2024, Fujitsu was awarded seven public sector contracts worth a total of £1.38m. This is in contrast with the 18 contracts worth over £154m it was awarded in the same period in 2023.
But this is not all down to Fujitsu’s pause in bidding. The organisation’s association with the Horizon scandal has seen public sector organisations turn away from the supplier. And it is not just public sector organisations.
British Gas owner Centrica recently snubbed Fujitsu on a large contract for which the supplier was the preferred bidder. This is said to have been a board decision to protect the company’s reputation.
Computer Weekly first exposed the Post Office scandal in 2009, revealing the stories of seven subpostmasters and the problems they suffered due to Horizon accounting software, which led to the most widespread miscarriage of justice in British history (see below timeline of Computer Weekly articles about the scandal since 2009).
