Post Office paid £600m to stay shackled to the faulty Horizon system

The Post Office has paid more than £600m of public money to continue using the faulty Horizon IT system despite deciding to ditch it more than a decade ago, the BBC can reveal.
The terms of the original 1999 deal with computer giant Fujitsu mean the Post Office has been stuck with the system and unable to build a replacement so far, even after it contributed to one of the UK’s biggest miscarriages of justice.
Former Prime Minister Sir Tony Blair and other senior Labour government figures were warned about potential problems with the terms of the deal before it was signed, the BBC has learned.
The Post Office said it “apologises unreservedly to victims of the Horizon IT scandal” and said it was committed to moving away from Fujitsu and the Horizon software.
Under the terms of the original £548m deal, struck under pressure from the then-Labour government, the Post Office did not own the computer code for the core part of the Horizon system.

Source: BBC | Language: English