UK Post Office names public inquiry as risk to £410 million Horizon replacement project
- Reference: 1753183032
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2025/07/22/uk_post_office_names_public/
- Source link:
After deciding to ditch an in-house effort to replace the controversial Horizon system, the government-owned company launched procurement for alternative suppliers.
In May, [1]it said it was looking for a supplier to come in and run the existing applications and infrastructure, currently part of the long-running contract with Fujitsu, in a deal worth up to £269 million ($362 million). It was also seeking a supplier to build a replacement based on off-the-shelf software, under a contract worth up to £141 million ($190 million).
[2]
Announcing [3]more details of the procurement this week , the Post Office described risks which could affect the performance of the awarded contracts, but "because of their nature, cannot be addressed in the contracts as awarded."
[4]
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Included in the list are the findings of the Post Office Horizon IT Inquiry, an independent judge-led investigation into the EPOS and back-end finance system, which was first implemented by ICL, a UK tech company majority owned by Fujitsu, in the 1990s and taken over completely by the Japanese giant in 1998. Between 1999 and 2015, hundreds of subpostmasters were wrongfully prosecuted and convicted of fraud, while errors in the system were to blame, resulting in devastating consequences for their lives. A statutory inquiry into the mass miscarriage of justice was launched in [6]2021 . The first volume of its report – addressing human cost and redress – was [7]published earlier this month.
The Post Office said the Inquiry, or any similar inquiries into the operations of the Post Office or the Horizon system, might mean the current procurement would later "require modification to the awarded contract."
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It also flagged up that policy decisions made by the UK government, "any regulator, or any other public body, whether or not in response to findings by an Inquiry, [might] require modification to the awarded contracts." The Post Office also warned about any legislation relating to the Post Office requiring changes to the contract.
Earlier this month, [9]the first volume of the report from the Post Office Horizon IT Inquiry found that 13 branch workers committed suicide, most probably as a result of prosecutions wrongfully launched by the Post Office. Inquiry chairman Sir Wyn Williams said senior Post Office staff in the UK – and those working for suppliers Fujitsu and ICL – knew or should have known about the defects causing errors in the original Horizon system.
[10]Fujitsu sorry for Post Office horror – but still cashing big UK govt checks
[11]Post Office and Fujitsu execs 'should have known' Horizon IT system was flawed
[12]Northern Ireland government confirms it did not ask Fujitsu to continue bidding for project
[13]Post Office finally throttles delayed in-house EPOS project
"For all practical purposes, throughout the lifetime of Legacy Horizon, the Post Office maintained the fiction that its data was always accurate," the report says.
After it was first implemented, the Horizon system received two substantial upgrades. In 2021, the Post Office launched plans to build a new system, now known as New Branch IT (NBIT).
In May, [14]a spokesperson told The Register : "Plans to replace Horizon with NBIT will not proceed as originally envisaged. However, it's important to remember that significant aspects of what had been developed for NBIT have already or will be repurposed to improve the technology in our branches, bringing benefits to postmasters and strategic partners. We are moving away from the 'big bang' launch which was envisaged as part of NBIT so postmasters will begin to see improvements in stages."
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A second volume of the Post Office Horizon IT Inquiry report – addressing the causes of and establishing accountability for the Horizon scandal – is expected next year. ®
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[1] https://www.theregister.com/2025/05/14/post_office_horizon_support/
[2] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/publicsector&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2aH-1lNU_gGdMXaiPCwsDIwAAAEI&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[3] https://www.find-tender.service.gov.uk/Notice/041512-2025
[4] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/publicsector&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44aH-1lNU_gGdMXaiPCwsDIwAAAEI&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[5] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/publicsector&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33aH-1lNU_gGdMXaiPCwsDIwAAAEI&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[6] https://www.theregister.com/2021/04/23/post_office_scandal_fujitsu_convictions_quashed/
[7] https://www.theregister.com/2025/07/08/post_office_horizon_inquiry/
[8] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/publicsector&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44aH-1lNU_gGdMXaiPCwsDIwAAAEI&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[9] https://www.theregister.com/2025/07/08/post_office_horizon_inquiry/
[10] https://www.theregister.com/2025/07/17/fujitsu_govt_contracts/
[11] https://www.theregister.com/2025/07/08/post_office_horizon_inquiry/
[12] https://www.theregister.com/2025/06/16/northern_ireland_government_fujitsu_bid/
[13] https://www.theregister.com/2025/05/14/post_office_horizon_support/
[14] https://www.theregister.com/2025/05/14/post_office_horizon_support/
[15] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/publicsector&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33aH-1lNU_gGdMXaiPCwsDIwAAAEI&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[16] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
Off the shelf
What vendors have an off the shelf product for this? Would they be other countries with Post offices?
Re: Off the shelf
Let me just pop down to Currys and have a look.
Australia Post seems to operate a not too dissimilar (other than being quite profitable) business with reasonable technology. The franchisees in the past have arguably been screwed over in the their commercial arrangements but nothing like the persecutions of the Horizon tragedy.
Banquets
The Post Office- famously diligent custodians of public trust - now claim that the inquiry into their own catastrophic IT failure is a threat to replacing said IT system. Incredible.
Apparently, Horizon is so irreparably broken they need £410 million to start over - yet somehow not broken enough to demand a refund from Fujitsu? Curious, that.
Also, if the Post Office doesn’t even have the source code or documentation, how is that remotely acceptable for a core national system? Did no one think to negotiate ownership before handing over a few hundred million the first time? Or was that covered under “just trust us, it works”?
And now, rather than modernise the existing system or hold anyone accountable, they’re throwing taxpayer money at another round of outsourced mystery boxes, while warning the inquiry might interfere - presumably by revealing too much truth.
Re: Banquets
It's scary that commentards to The Register don't understand the difference between a risk and a threat in project documentation.
The Post Office is a broken company
It has been broken for a very long time and the reasons for it being broken have been institutionalised.
The only way to fix it is to start replacing management from the top down until the people who maintain the institutionalised behaviour have all been removed.
Furthermore, can the author of this article please start using normal English? The correct terminology is "judicial inquiry" not "judge-led investigation".
Poor little things
"Look, this public inquiry into why and how we knowingly drove innocent employees to suicide is really crimping our style. Could we just keep our lives, salaries and honors and move on ?"
Icon for my response ->
Oh dear
Your honour, if you send me to prison for the fraud I've committed, I won't be able to keep up with my mortgage payments.
"risk to its £410 million ($552 million) plan to replace its ageing POS and accounting system"
So nothing at all to do with the prospect of individuals in all layers of the PO, Fujitsu management and maybe some government officials, possibly facing trial for perjury, perverting the course of justice, false accounting, contempt of court, fraud, defamation, corruption, Misconduct in public office?
Not that?
I'm guessing Microsoft has an "off-the-shelf" replacement - just a few tweaks needed
They can repurpose SharePoint and Exchange to handle the POS transactions, I'm sure. And on-premises, of course, since it is so much more secure that way. See CVE-2025-53770 for glowing references.
Re: I'm guessing Microsoft has an "off-the-shelf" replacement - just a few tweaks needed
They already have a far worse solution for that. It's called Dynamics 365. Possibly the slowest, most bloated and impenetrable piece of software ever created.
Re: I'm guessing Microsoft has an "off-the-shelf" replacement - just a few tweaks needed
Until the next new piece of MS software comes along...
Re: I'm guessing Microsoft has an "off-the-shelf" replacement - just a few tweaks needed
To be fair, replacing Horizon is about the only situation where OneDrive has less chance of loosing your data.
I'll ask again: What, exactly, does the "Post Office" (as in the holding company for what I call the Post Office round the corner) do?
That's easy: "Money for nothing and the chicks are free".
The Post Office reaches new lows
Their bleating here beggars belief. The Post Office's behaving like someone who murders their parents and asks the court to be sympathetic because they've recently been orphaned.
The Post Office simply can't procure any new IT system until there's a full accounting and audit for the trainloads of fuckups, mismanagement, fraud and deceit they created with Horizon. That'll be the only way to ensure there won't be a repeat.
Of course, once they do get allowed to get a new system, there's no guarantee they'll fuck that up too - just in different ways.
Require modification to the awarded contract
Are the government belatedly going to insist it works?
Or will there simply be an extra "Compensation" module so that those affected can queue up every Thursday for their weekly installment and have their book stamped to prove they haven't stolen it?
Risks to "Business as Usual"
From TFA: The UK Post Office has said the public inquiry into the Horizon IT scandal is a risk to its £410 million ($552 million) plan to replace its ageing POS and accounting system, and may force changes to awarded contracts.
As it should. The report-writer seems more concerned about the risk to backhanders than they are about the new system's functionality, reliability, and economy.