The global chief executive of Fujitsu has apologised for the first time over the firm’s role in the Horizon scandal.

Speaking at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Takahito Tokita told BBC: “This is a big issue, which Fujitsu takes very seriously.”

When asked if he would apologise, he said: “Yes, of course. Fujitsu has apologised for the impact on the postmasters’ lives and their families.”

It comes after a Fujitsu executive today told MPs the firm’s role in the scandal was an “appalling miscarriage of justice”.

Paul Patterson, Fujitsu’s Europe director, told the Business and Trade committee that staff may have been aware of “bugs and errors” in the Horizon IT software before 2010.

“Fujitsu would like to apologise for our part in this appalling miscarriage of justice. We were involved from the very start.

“We did have bugs and errors in the system and we did help the Post Office in their prosecutions of the sub-postmasters and for that we are truly sorry,” he said.

Asked whether staff knew there were bugs and glitches in the system before 2010, Mr Patterson initially said he didn’t know but later said “my gut feeling would be yes” when the question was repeated.

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