A confidential contract from 2006 has exposed a secret agreement between the Post Office and Fujitsu to rectify errors within the flawed Horizon IT system, directly contradicting their public assertions for nearly two decades.
The damning 2006 contract
The 26-page document, marked "commercial in confidence", was first revealed by Channel 4 News on Monday 22 December 2025 after being published on the official Post Office Horizon IT Inquiry website. It details a formal arrangement where Fujitsu was liable for a penalty of £100 to £150 in "liquidated damages" for each faulty transaction identified.
Critically, the contract explicitly authorised both companies to alter subpostmasters' accounts remotely. It states: "If the reconciliation service identifies that transaction data held on the 'central database'... is found to be inconsistent... the reconciliation service shall obtain authorisation from Post Office prior to amending the centrally held transaction data." This clause starkly contradicts the Post Office's long-held position that it was impossible to remotely manipulate branch accounts and that the Horizon system was robust.
A legacy of wrongful prosecutions and suffering
This revelation proves that both corporations were aware of systemic bugs in the Horizon software while simultaneously pursuing legal action against subpostmasters. Between 1999 and 2015, approximately 1,000 people across the UK were wrongly prosecuted and convicted based on erroneous data from Horizon, which falsely indicated financial shortfalls in their accounts.
The human cost of the scandal has been devastating. A significant number of those accused contemplated self-harm, and tragically, some took their own lives. The fight for justice gained monumental public traction following the ITV drama Mr Bates Vs The Post Office, which laid bare the extent of the miscarriage of justice.
Victims react with fury and disgust
Lee Castleton, a former subpostmaster wrongly accused of false accounting, told Channel 4 News the discovery made him feel "physically sick". He said, "You've got a group of people in two companies that wrote a contract for something that they've said repeatedly was never required... It's absolutely abhorrent."
Mr Castleton believes the disclosure of this document "absolutely" would have altered the course of his own case. "We're now talking about accounts that can be adjusted remotely, but also a contract in place for how that should be done," he stated, highlighting the profound significance of the find.
Paul Marshall, a senior barrister representing victims, told the BBC the contract shows a "very big, recognised problem with Horizon maintaining data integrity" as far back as 2006. He accused the Post Office of maintaining for 20 years that shortfalls could only be explained by "postmaster incompetence or dishonesty", while this contract proves Fujitsu was contractually unable to assure the system's fundamental accuracy.
In response to the disclosure, a Post Office spokesperson offered an unequivocal apology: "We apologise unequivocally for the hurt and suffering which the Post Office caused to so many people during the Horizon IT Scandal." They added that the organisation is now focused on cooperating with the public inquiry and delivering financial redress. A Fujitsu spokesperson declined to comment, citing the ongoing statutory inquiry.
