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Lord Foulkes of Cumnock (Lab Co-op)

Speaking in the House of Lords on 17 July 2025

Debate

Post Office Horizon Inquiry: Volume 1

Contribution

My Lords, I was astonished by the contribution from the Opposition Front Bench, not just because, as the noble Baroness from the Liberal Democrats said, I had assumed this was specifically on the report and not on the Green Paper, but because the noble Lord was talking about the future of the Post Office, and indeed mentioned Royal Mail, without acknowledging that the demise of the Post Office and the Royal Mail has been under the Tory party over the last 14 years. It has. If we look at other countries, we see a much better system continuing in most of our competitors. I want to raise two points, the first of which was raised by the noble Baroness from the Liberal Democrats. The Minister said that the Government expect Fujitsu to contribute and that discussions are under way, but has Fujitsu been given a deadline by which this must be agreed, and how much do we expect it to contribute? It needs to be a great deal; otherwise, the taxpayer is undertaking the cost again, as we have done with so many things, and as we are going to have to do with the Afghan compensation, and it should not be the taxpayer in this case—it should be Fujitsu. My second question is about prosecutions. Everyone seems to get away without any prosecutions in these kinds of things. Will the Minister talk to the Attorney-General and ask when some of the people who were responsible for the terrible tragedy that so many sub-postmasters and sub-postmistresses suffered will be held to account? It is about time that they were.

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