Carl Creswell, director of business resilience at the Department of Business and Trade, informed members of the Business and Trade Committee that the taxpayer is the only party currently willing to cover the expense.
The government is not currently haggling over a price with the Japanese software company, despite the fact that Fujitsu “seem open” to covering some of the costs, he said.
According to Mr. Cresswell, the official in charge of managing the Group Litigation Order (GLO), one of the Post Office’s compensation systems, starting sum negotiations at this time could be “wrong”.
“If we were to agree a sum of money now and then the Horizon IT Inquiry were to find something material that could affect that negotiation, I think it would be wrong of us, on behalf of the taxpayer, to reach a pre-emptive agreement,” he stated to lawmakers.
Sub-postmaster compensation is estimated to have cost “slightly over £1bn” in all, he continued.
