Writing for Belfast Live, People Before Profit MLA Gerry Carroll questioned the awarding of Stormont contracts to Fujitsu following the Post Office Horizon scandal
Gerry Carroll is a People Before Profit MLA in the Northern Ireland Assembly, representing West Belfast. He topped the polls in the 2016 election, picking up more than 8,000 votes.
The Post Office Horizon scandal stands as the most shameful miscarriage of justice in recent UK legal history. Over 1,000 sub-postmasters have been wrongly prosecuted as a direct consequence of knowingly ‘faulty’ software provided by Fujitsu.
Despite being at the centre of a national scandal and still under public inquiry, Fujitsu has continued to profit handsomely from the public purse – securing over £800 million in government contracts in the past year alone, including a £125million contract awarded from our own Department of Finance to build the new land registry system, even after publicly claiming in January 2024 that it would pause bidding for new work.
That is an insult to the victims of Horizon and a damning indictment of our system of public accountability.
But here in the North, this failure isn’t just distant – it’s unfolding in real time, with direct consequences for how we are governed, how we trade, and how much trust the public can place in our institutions.
Fujitsu currently leads the delivery of the Trader Support Service (TSS) – the digital infrastructure underpinning how goods move between Britain and the north of Ireland under the Windsor Framework. This service facilitates over £14billion in trade annually and is central to managing the post-Brexit Irish Sea border.
Yet this critical public service is being run by the very same company responsible for one of the most catastrophic failures in British history. A company still under public investigation. A company whose systems suffered a fresh nationwide outage just weeks ago, causing carnage in over 11,000 Post Offices and reminding everyone that this isn’t merely a story from the past – it’s an ongoing failure, with live consequences.
As an elected representative in a region where trust in governance is already fragile, I find it deeply alarming that such a politically sensitive mechanism as the TSS could remain in the hands of a company so steeped in controversy. The North has seen too often what happens when systems designed in Whitehall are implemented without local accountability or consent. We should not allow another pillar of our political and economic infrastructure to be handed to a company that has demonstrably put profit before purpose.
The TSS contract, worth £370million, is due for renewal later this year. If Fujitsu wins again, it will be responsible for running our post-Brexit trade systems for at least another five years. That cannot happen without a serious public debate – and without Northern Ireland’s elected institutions and people having a meaningful say.
This issue goes beyond procurement – it’s a test of values. What message does it send to victims of the Horizon scandal if the company responsible is not only shielded from meaningful consequence but rewarded with yet more public contracts? What does it say about our priorities if we entrust such an essential function of the Windsor Framework to a company with such a profound credibility deficit?
The House of Lords Northern Ireland Scrutiny Committee is currently conducting an inquiry into strengthening Northern Ireland’s voice in the context of the Windsor Framework. That inquiry must consider not only the complex legislation surrounding the Framework but the broader question of democratic legitimacy. Who gets to make decisions about the North’s future? And whose interests are being prioritised?
Meanwhile, the recent awarding of a £125million contract to Fujitsu to overhaul the North’s land registry system – a decision taken despite clear concerns – adds to a pattern of awarding public money without public scrutiny.
We must break this cycle. The UK Government, in consultation with the Northern Ireland Executive, must commit to a full review of Fujitsu’s eligibility for public contracts. And that review must not wait for the final Horizon Inquiry report – the facts are already clear enough.
In a region where governance, transparency, and fairness are central to political stability, we must insist that any company seeking to run vital public systems must first prove it deserves our trust. Fujitsu has not.
And until it does, it should have no further role in the delivery of critical services in the North.
This is not about politics – it’s about principle. Justice delayed must not become justice denied. And we in the North have a responsibility to ensure that those who enabled such injustice are not quietly handed the keys to our future.
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