The UK's cabinet office minister Alex Burghart has been informed by Fujitsu that the company will suspend bidding on government contracts for the time being.

According to Burghart, this does not include extensions to existing contracts.

The announcement comes shortly after renewed interest in the Horizon IT scandal which saw up to 700 Post Office branch managers wrongfully prosecuted (of which 93 have since been overturned) after a glitch accused them of stealing money. Many were forced to repay the funds that they had not stolen.

A further £31 million ($39.43m) was wasted by the Post Office in 2023 for its failed cloud migration away from the Fujitsu-provided Horizon solution.

Under this, however, Fujitsu is not refusing to extend its Post Office Horizon contract again, having extended it as recently as November 2023 for £36 million ($45.8m).

It is still expected that, at some point, Fujitsu will make another announcement regarding compensation for the sub-postmasters. The company told a parliamentary committee on January 16 that it would be contributing to the compensation scheme regardless of what the inquiry recommends, as Fujitsu has a moral obligation to do so.

According to TechMarketView, a vast majority of Fujitsu's UK revenues (including the Post Office) were from the public sector in 2023 - around 70 percent. Stepping back on bidding for government contracts could have a huge impact on the company.

This follows only a handful of years after the company pulled out of the health sector in the UK after a legal dispute arose between Fujitsu and the Government over the NHS Programme for IT when Fujitsu's contract was terminated after a dispute over changes.

Fujitsu sued the Government for £700m (close to £990m or $1.26bn today), which finally came to an end in 2018 with the company receiving a significant - but undisclosed - sum. Fujitsu has only recently returned to the health sector.