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The head of the UK arm of Fujitsu, the technology group at the centre of the Post Office Horizon scandal, received a 50 per cent pay rise last year as its parent company injected fresh capital to offset falling orders and reputational damage.
Accounts for UK-based Fujitsu Services, a subsidiary of the Japanese IT services company, show its highest-paid director — understood to be UK head Anwen Owen — earned £591,000 in the year to March 2025, up from £388,000 a year earlier. Owen, a former senior civil servant who joined the UK company’s board in 2022, previously held roles at the Treasury and Cabinet Office.
According to the accounts, Fujitsu’s parent injected £80mn into the business to “strengthen the balance sheet” and support operations, following a £200mn capital infusion the previous year.
Revenues fell 9.2 per cent to almost £1.1bn, while profit recovered to £15mn from a loss the year before. However, the company’s order pipeline contracted by a fifth to £904mn, with management warning that the “loss of future new business due to reputational damage arising from the Horizon inquiry remains a key risk”.
More than 900 sub-postmasters were wrongly prosecuted between 1999 and 2015 due to faults in the Horizon computer system, which was developed by Fujitsu and falsely showed accounting shortfalls. More than 230 sub-postmasters were jailed, and at least 13 are believed to have taken their own lives.
In its latest filings, Fujitsu said it “continues to support the inquiry process until its conclusion” and is “engaging in discussions with the UK government regarding an appropriate and proportionate contribution” to compensation for victims.
The company said ahead of the inquiry’s final findings, “it is not possible to estimate the amount of a future financial contribution” and therefore no provision has been made in its balance sheet.
The pay rise and cash injection were first reported by the Times and the Sunday Telegraph.
Fujitsu has suspended bidding for UK government contracts until the conclusion of the public inquiry into the Horizon system.
The company told the Financial Times that it continued to work with the government “to ensure we adhere to the voluntary restrictions we put in place regarding bidding for new contracts” and was “engaged with government regarding Fujitsu’s contribution to compensation”.
It added that “improved operating margins and the successful delivery of strategic cost reduction measures” had helped boost pre-tax profits.
“We remain focused on supporting our UK customers, through the delivery of innovative IT services and solutions,” the company said.
The UK government last week pledged to improve the compensation schemes for victims of the Horizon scandal. Business secretary Peter Kyle said ministers would create an appeals process for sub-postmasters who accepted fixed-sum payments under earlier settlements, allowing them to pursue full, evidence-based redress.
The first report of the public inquiry, released in July, found that both Post Office and Fujitsu employees were aware of serious flaws in the Horizon system but “maintained the fiction” that it was reliable. The government has accepted all but one of the inquiry’s 19 recommendations, including proposals for an independent body to oversee redress in future cases.
Fujitsu’s accounts also disclose a £4mn damages claim filed by a former sub-postmaster in July. Fujitsu does not identify the claimant, but media reports have linked the case to Lee Castleton, whose story featured in ITV’s Mr Bates vs the Post Office. The company said it was “not yet possible to predict the outcome” of the case.