Software that puts you behind bars

I have reached a personal high point of disbelief, following the unwinding of the UK Post Office scandal related to the implementation of Fujitsu’s Horizon computer system and one of the worst miscarriages of justice ever seen. The depth of maliciousness some individuals are prepared to sink to to deflect accountability are simply incomprehensible.

The Horizon system was developed by ICL, a company Fujitsu acquired in 1990 as a specialist in public sector software. Horizon was introduced into the Post Office network from 1999 for tasks such as transactions, accounting and stocktaking.

Sub-postmasters complained about bugs in the system after it reported shortfalls, some of which amounted to many thousands of pounds. To cut a long story short, the system was deemed correct despite widespread reports of bugs, and 736 sub-postmasters and sub-postmistresses were prosecuted between 2000 and 2014 for false accounting and theft, many went to jail and those who did not had their personal life ruined.

A good account of Fujitsu’s complicity can be found in this article. The High Court judgement opening up a review of the falsely convicted cases stated that the Horizon system was not “remotely robust” for the first 10 years of its use, and still had problems after that.

So far, nobody at the Post Office or Fujitsu has been held accountable, although the High Court judge said he would refer Fujitsu to the Director of Public Prosecutions for possible further action because he had “grave concerns” about the evidence of the company’s employees.

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