Post Office recruiting tech-savvy board member amid unravelling IT disaster

The Post office is currently looking for a non-executive board member with a technology background as it deals with ongoing challenges with its IT project to replace the controversial Horizon system.

A major project to replace Fujitsu’s Horizon system, known as the New Branch IT (NBIT) project, is currently over budget and behind schedule, with fears over its future liability.

During the latest Post Office Horizon scandal public inquiry, the Post Office’s current company secretary, Rachel Scarrabelotti, was asked – in the light of the ongoing IT challenges being experienced at the Post Office and its history with the Horizon system – about her witness statement, which expressed the importance of having a board member with tech know-how.

“Absolutely, because we are embarking in a major technology transformation,” she told the inquiry.

She was questioned by barrister Christopher Jacobs, representing victims of the Horizon scandal, if there was anyone fitting the profile on the current Post Office board. She said that there was not currently, but added: “We are currently recruiting for an independent executive director with a skills set in technology and cyber.”

Chris Brocklesby, who recently left his role as chief transformation officer at the Post Office, was asked during his public inquiry hearing earlier this week whether “given the history of the issues being investigated by the chair in this inquiry, do you think there should be someone on the board with IT experience?”

Brocklesby, who has held CIO roles at Tesco Bank, EasyJet, Vodafone UK and Dunelm, said: “Yes, I think in other boards that I’ve interacted with, that’s been more and more of a theme, where there’s been a specific non-executive director [NED] role, which has been a digital or data NED, that’s been recruited to various boards.”

The Post Office is mired in an IT scandal because it blamed and punished subpostmasters for unexplained accounting shortfalls, including criminally prosecuting hundreds of subpostmasters, which were caused by errors in the Horizon system from Fujitsu used in branches.

The Post Office is currently facing huge challenges with its project to replace Horizon, which began in 2022. The project, originally planned to be complete in March 2025, is now expected to be finished in 2030 – if at all, some say. Costs have increased form the originally planned £180m to more than £1bn.

The Post Office is looking to extend its contract with Fujitsu, with the supplier set to receive a further £180m in taxpayers’ cash to extend its contract to run the controversial Post Office Horizon IT system for a further five years.

During his appearance at the inquiry, Brocklesby said that if all goes to plan between now and June 2026, the new system will be built. 

“It’s being built incrementally, starting with a certain number of the transactions that postmasters use and, building on that, more and more transactions,” he told the public inquiry. “In parallel with that, the system will be piloted in up to 50 branches, so that we get subpostmaster feedback and experience of the new system.”

He said that if this all works well, “the system will be starting to be deployed into branches” from June 2026. This will mean the Post Office can start to turn off Horizon in those branches and move them to fully relying on NBIT to serve customers.

“[The] process of training postmasters in the new system, cutting over from the old to the new, will take the period of time between the middle of 2026 and the end of 2028.”

He said that through this period, the Post Office will start to turn off some services provided by Fujitsu, then at the end of 2028 it will turn off the last of those services and cease to rely on Fujitsu to support Horizon.

• Also read: What you need to know about the Horizon scandal •

• Also watch: ITV’s documentary – Mr Bates vs The Post Office: The real story •

• Also read: Post Office and Fujitsu malevolence and incompetence means huge taxpayers’ bill •