Paul Patterson is stepping down as European boss of Fujitsu, as pressure mounts over the company’s role in the Post Office Horizon scandal and ahead of the expected publication of the inquiry’s main report later this year.
Patterson will become non-executive chair of Fujitsu’s UK business, where he will “continue managing the company’s response” to the inquiry into the scandal. Patterson, who has worked at the Japanese IT provider since 2010, represented the company at the public inquiry.
During Patterson’s tenure, Fujitsu remained the technology supplier behind the Horizon system at the centre of the scandal, which saw hundreds of subpostmasters wrongly blamed, prosecuted and financially ruined after unexplained accounting shortfalls were attributed to them rather than software faults.
Evidence heard by the inquiry has revealed that the company was aware of system problems and monitored negative media coverage as early as 2013, while failing to correct the public record.
To date, the company has not contributed financially to compensation for victims, despite acknowledging an obligation to do so. Fujitsu also continues to receive substantial UK government contracts, despite earlier indications that it would step back from bidding for new public sector work.
Campaigners have criticised Patterson’s leadership during the period.
Subpostmaster and campaigner Lee Castleton said Patterson had acted as a “bystander rather than a leader”, accusing Fujitsu of clinging to a “denial playbook” that downplayed system faults, disputed remote access to accounts and failed to recognise the harm caused to innocent people.
Fujitsu said Patterson will remain with the company for a transitional period. An announcement on whether, and how much, the firm will contribute towards the overall cost of the scandal is still pending.
Earlier this month, Patterson had said Fujitsu was “not a parasite”, after being criticised for continuing to take hundreds of millions of pounds from UK government contracts while refusing to give a compensation figure for Horizon victims.
He told the Commons business and trade committee that he stood by his previous comments and that Fujitsu would calculate the level of financial redress due to victims when the inquiry, led by Sir Wyn Williams, publishes the final volume of its conclusions.