"Paul Patterson, the director of Fujitsu Services Ltd, emailed the government on January 24 last year [PDF] to clarify that until an inquiry into the scandal was complete, there was "no limitation or caveat on our intention to pause bidding for work with new Government customers." He said it would "only" continue bidding for public sector work if a new customer asked it to do so, or with existing customers "for example a contract extension or for similar work already undertaken by Fujitsu for that customer," or "for new opportunities with existing customers, where we have assessed and understood there to be a need [for] Fujitsu skills and capability.""
"Yet, in April this year, Fujitsu won a £125 million contract to build Northern Ireland's new land registry system, a contract for which it was bidding at the time Patterson wrote to the government. NI's Department of Finance is a new customer, and the NI government has confirmed it did not ask Fujitsu to continue bidding."
A group of 76 parliamentarians sent an open letter to the Prime Minister calling for urgent action on Fujitsu's continued eligibility for government contracts. In January 2024 Fujitsu emailed the UK government's commercial arm to say it would pause bidding for public sector projects until an inquiry into the Post Office Horizon scandal was complete, stating "no limitation or caveat on our intention to pause bidding for work with new Government customers." The email qualified that bidding would continue for limited circumstances involving existing customers or assessed needs. Despite that commitment, Fujitsu won a £125 million contract in April to build Northern Ireland's new land registry, with the NI Department of Finance identified as a new customer that did not request continued bidding.
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