The Post Office has agreed to end a contract it has held with Fujitsu for over 25 years and hand over operations to Accenture by next year.

It was confirmed on Tuesday the three organisations had jointly agreed that Accenture would take control of its IT systems sometime between 1 June and 1 September 2027, with the final date due to be confirmed in March 2027.

The Post Office has held the contract with Fujitsu since 1999.

The Japanese tech company was the heart of the Post Office Horizon scandal in which its flawed Horizon software caused a series of financial shortfalls in sub-postmasters’ branch accounts. More than 900 sub-postmasters were wrongfully convicted between 1999 and 2015, which led to the Post Office Inquiry.

The Post Office paid £95m to Fujitsu in 2024 to extend the contract for two years, after a plan to move to Amazon was ditched, according to reports.

The Post Office said it will be a “handover process that will ensure continuity and operational stability for customers and postmasters whilst the Horizon system is transferred to Accenture from Fujitsu.”

The Post Office’s current contract with Fujitsu runs until March 2027. The firm confirmed a “short, time-limited contract extension has also been agreed to facilitate the transition process.”

The Post Office said it will retire Horizon from its operations as part of it’s five-year transformation plan which “will see software and hardware throughout the historic institution upgraded to meet the needs of the modern customer with greater flexibility and convenience.”

Chief executive of the Post Office, Neil Brocklehurst announced in May 2026 that Accenture would be undertaking a ‘walk in and take over’ exercise for the current Horizon system, assuming day to day operations from Fujitsu, as well as developing the back-end of the new system to replace Horizon which will be used in branches.

Alongside Accenture, the new system will be developed in partnership with tech suppliers OneView Commerce and Escher, which the post office said it will “work closely” with to “introduce a simpler and more effective IT system throughout the branch network.”

“Ending our contract with Fujitsu is a critical milestone in Post Office’s transformation, and today’s agreement secures the transition away from Fujitsu and over to Accenture safely and responsibly to achieve our target of summer 2027,” Brocklehurst said.

The chief executive added the firm is “working at pace” with Accenture, Oneview Commerce and Escher “to build a modern, resilient platform able to make everyday life easier for customers and postmasters for years to come.”

Matt Prebble, head of Accenture in the UK & Ireland, said: “We understand how important it is that postmasters can continue serving their customers and communities throughout this transformation. Our priority is a safe and carefully managed transition that supports continued trading in branches.” 

Barristers charged with misconduct

The end of the contract comes after two of the solicitors in relation to the Horizon IT scandal were referred to The Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal in June and charged with misconduct.

The regulator confirmed it was taking action against Jane MacLeod, the former Post Office general counsel from 2015 to 2019, and Nick Gould, a partner who represented former sub-postmistress Seema Misra to overturn her conviction in 2021. It is alleged Gould failed to provide adequate information in relation to legal costs and the scope of the legal work to clients he was representing, including Misra.

In October, during a case management hearing, MacLeod was accused by the SRA of “putting her own convenience” first by filing an application to appear remotely from Australia for a Tribunal hearing over alleged misconduct during the Horizon IT Scandal.