Fujitsu snubbed on private sector deal with Centrica due to Post Office scandal backlash

Fujitsu has lost out on a contract with British Gas owner Centrica after the company’s board, fearful of reputational damage, blocked it, despite the troubled supplier being the preferred bidder.

Sources also say the recent termination of a contract with the Northern Ireland Education Board was down to implementation problems, not the Post Office scandal backlash.

Fujitsu’s public sector sales have collapsed this year, but the snub by utilities firm Centrica could signal future difficulties for the company in the UK private sector.

The Japanese supplier was the preferred bidder for an end user computing contract at Centrica, worth about £45m, sources told Computer Weekly. Contract teams were preparing for negotiations, before Centrica’s board put a stop to it.

Since the broadcast of ITV’s dramatisation of the Post Office Horizon scandal, there has been a huge public backlash against Fujitsu, the supplier of the error-prone software at the centre of the scandal.

When approached by Computer Weekly, Centrica said it doesn’t comment on speculation, but it stressed that it uses Fujitsu for internal solutions only, such as providing laptops and IT helpdesk support, and that the supplier doesn’t provide customer-facing services.

Fujitsu has already seen its public sector sales fall after a self-imposed ban on 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. 

Centrica is a private company. Unlike in the public sector, contracts are not published in the private sector, so the effect of the scandal on Fujitsu’s private sector UK business is less known.

Fujitsu had provided no response to Computer Weekly’s questions when this article was published.

Separately, Computer Weekly has learned that the Northern Ireland Education Board’s (NIEB) decision to drop Fujitsu from a deal to supply IT to schools was due to implementation issues rather than its association with the Post Office scandal. The deal was listed as being £500m, but was actually worth about £230m according to sources, who said the implementation problems saw it labelled red, the highest level of risk in its red, amber, green rating.

When Computer Weekly put this to the NIEB, a spokesperson said: “Following extensive negotiations, the Education Authority of Northern Ireland and Fujitsu Services Limited have mutually agreed, on a no-fault basis, not to continue with the EdIS Strategic Partner and School Management System contract.”

Fujitsu released an identical statement, but added: “Fujitsu would like to thank the Education Authority for its support and partnership over the past 11 months.”

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).