A nationwide police investigation into the Post Office scandal faces conflict of interest questions over Fujitsu’s role in operating the network used by separate police forces to share information.

Peer James Arbuthnot described the contract as very concerning and questioned whether the government is “over a barrel to Fujitsu”.

The government extended Fujitsu’s Law Enforcement Community Network (LECN) contract in November through a £15m deal, despite the supplier being investigated in a Post Office scandal probe.

There is a potential conflict of interest in having the network underpinning a major operational police activity run by a company whose former employees and actions are being investigated.

The actions of the Japanese supplier’s UK operation are being investigated as part of the national Operation Olympus police investigation into the Post Office scandal. The investigation, which involves collaboration between police forces across the country, was established after the broadcast of the Post Office scandal-based drama, Mr Bates versus the Post Office, and the public anger that followed.

In June, Police said that as part of Operation Olympos, they were investigating 45 people in relation to potential crimes committed in the scandal, with seven formally identified as suspects. Numbers are expected to increase significantly.

The LECN platform uses networking equipment and encryption technology to provide secure connectivity between forces.

According to Tussell, LECN is made up of 16 contracts with a combined value of about £29m, with the largest contract awarded to Fujitsu to supply software-defined wide area network (SD-WAN) continuity.

The network acts as the backbone for cross-force collaboration, allowing the Metropolitan Police and other forces to coordinate investigations such as Operation Olympos. It enables real-time sharing of intelligence, case files and operational data across the country, with orchestration, monitoring and access. It is managed by police-vetted Fujitsu staff.

Forensic criminal psychologist Ian Ross, a former police officer and listed expert for the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague, said: “There is a de facto conflict of interest here. Given the Metropolitan police-led Operation Olympus is currently investigating Fujitsu itself, their employees involved in the scandal concerning nothing less than alleged perjury in both the High Court and Crown Court, how can they justify this dubious business relationship?”

Arbuthnot said Fujitsu’s role on the LECN is “very concerning”.

“The government needs to avoid both an actual conflict of interest and the appearance of one. In using Fujitsu to operate a network in law enforcement, when Fujitsu themselves are being investigated by Operation Olympus, is both an apparent and an actual conflict,” he told Computer Weekly. “I am troubled that the government seems not to be putting any effort into finding someone else to do this work.”

Fujitsu’s LECN contract extension was agreed months after the announcement of Operation Olympos in May 2024.

In January, Peer Kevan Jones asked the government what contracts the Home Office had awarded to Fujitsu since July 2024. The government said the Home Office had awarded two contracts with Fujitsu during the period, including the LECN contract. The government said the contract was renewed because it was “considered essential for law enforcement purposes to do so”.

Computer Weekly asked the Home Office what specific conflict-of-interest assessment was carried out when awarding the LECN contract to Fujitsu, given the supplier was already a potential criminal suspect under Operation Olympos? The Home Office had not responded when this article was published.

The Home Office was also asked what steps it is taking to mitigate the potential conflict of interest risks in the contract in relation to Operation Olympos. The government department did not respond.

Last week, Computer Weekly revealed a potential conflict of interest in a separate, Met Police, sub-contract with Fujitsu to provide the IT underpinning the uniform ordering system for Met Police officers, known as Uniform Hub. According to a Freedom of Information request response, through the Uniform Hub contract, Fujitsu captures, stores and processes human resources (HR) files that contain information relating to officers.

The data includes personal and employment details such as employee number and user ID, name, email address, gender, last hire date and termination date, if relevant. It also includes information on what Met police officers are working on, the start date of current assignments, rank bands and job roles.

A legal source told Computer Weekly this creates “at least” a potential conflict of interest.

The LECN deal is further evidence of a heavy public sector reliance on Fujitsu in critical areas, which include HMRC work as well as policing.

The Police National Computer (PNC) also runs on a Fujitsu mainframe. This is the central database used by UK police and law enforcement agencies to store and access information. It’s used to carry out real-time checks, including on criminal records, missing persons and vehicle registrations. 

It is accessed by all UK police forces and other authorised agencies, and is part of the UK’s critical national infrastructure, providing 24/7 availability. 

Fujitsu has provided the mainframe technology and support for many years. The PNC is being replaced by the Law Enforcement Data Service (LEDS), but delays meant Fujitsu was selected to provide support for the existing hardware until the new system is rolled out. 

Peer Arbuthnot asked whether the country is “over a barrel to Fujitsu”.

“If so, it is not acceptable,” he said. “We simply must make it possible to stop using a company which colluded in the prosecution, on the basis of Fujitsu’s false evidence, of far too many subpostmasters. To whom, by the way, they have paid not a penny in compensation.”

Separately from Operation Olympus, but in relation to the Post Office scandal, former Fujitsu staff have been under investigation since 2020. As Computer Weekly revealed that year, the Met Police began assessing evidence of potential perjury offences committed by Fujitsu staff in criminal trials of subpostmasters prosecuted for accounting errors caused by a computer system.

In November 2021, it opened a criminal investigation into Fujitsu staff who gave evidence in trials of subpostmasters.

Operation Olympus widens the investigation into the actions of Fujitsu and its staff.

The Post Office scandal was first exposed by Computer Weekly in 2009, revealing the stories of seven subpostmasters and the problems they suffered due to the accounting software (see timeline of Computer Weekly articles about the scandal below).

Read more on IT for government and public sector

• 
  

  Police investigation into Post Office scandal to cost more than £50m

  By: Karl Flinders

• 
  

  Subpostmaster federation accepted money from Fujitsu in run-up to High Court Post Office trial

  By: Karl Flinders

• 
  

  Kroll reviewing Post Office Horizon’s current integrity and discrepancy identification

  By: Karl Flinders

• 
  

  Post Office scandal data leak interim compensation offers made

  By: Karl Flinders