Fujitsu is preferred bidder for digital proof-of-age scheme

Fujitsu is in line to win a nationwide contract for a digital ID card scheme for checking the age of customers in pubs and supermarkets.

The Japanese IT company, which has been at the centre of the Post Office Horizon scandal, is expected to be a key provider for the system, despite a voluntary pledge not to seek new government business.

Fujitsu was given preferred bidder status in January 2023, before the Horizon scandal burst into the public consciousness and the company promised not to bid for public sector contracts for the next two years. Flaws in Fujtisu’s Horizon software led to the wrongful convictions of more than 700 subpostmasters on charges such as theft, fraud and false accounting from 1999 to 2015.

Earlier this year the company admitted that staff had known about errors in the system for years, apologised to postmasters and admitted that it had a “moral obligation” to pay victims’ compensation.

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Fujitsu is now expected to win a contract with the Proof of Age Standards Scheme “Pass”, a private company that is not funded by taxpayers but is endorsed by the Home Office. The new system could allow people to scan digital IDs on their smartphones, rather than using a driving licence or passport for age verification at pubs or self-service tills.

Many companies will be able to issue electronic IDs, but it is likely that a single business will build the software that facilitates the verification through a digital app or barcode scanner. The potential three-year contract, first reported by The Sunday Telegraph, is thought to be worth less than £1 million. Pass acts as an unofficial regulator and the contract describes the system as “in effect strategically important national infrastructure”.

Fujitsu said: “The tender process and being selected as preferred bidder pre-dated the guidelines that Fujitsu has put in place regarding bidding for new work with customers in the public sector.”

It is understood that the tender process for the work started in May 2022 and Fujitsu submitted a bid in response in June that year. Rival companies could make a possible contingency bid if it emerges that Fujitsu cannot provide the technology, according to the Telegraph.

The Age Verification Providers’ Association, the industry body for age verification, which counts Fujitsu among its members, told the Telegraph that Pass should consider the findings of the public inquiry into the Post Office scandal. Those findings are expected later this year.