Asked by: Mike Wood (Conservative - Kingswinford and South Staffordshire)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, with reference to his speech Move fast. Fix things, delivered on 20 January 2026, by what mechanism Ministers will set KPIs for the Senior Civil Service; and whether those KPIs will be issued in writing.
Answered by Satvir Kaur - Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)
The Cabinet Secretary is introducing a new accountability and performance framework for Permanent Secretaries, designed to focus on delivering the Prime Minister's priorities and holding people to account for doing so. As part of this, objectives for Permanent Secretaries, underpinned by clear KPIs and expectations, will be agreed with Secretaries of State and reviewed regularly throughout the year. All SCS performance outcomes will be subject to Cabinet Office consistency checking.
Asked by: Mike Wood (Conservative - Kingswinford and South Staffordshire)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, with reference to his speech entitled Move fast. Fix things, delivered on 20 January 2026, whether Ministers will have the authority to amend KPIs during a performance year.
Answered by Satvir Kaur - Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)
The Cabinet Secretary is introducing a new accountability and performance framework for Permanent Secretaries, designed to focus on delivering the Prime Minister's priorities and holding people to account for doing so. As part of this, objectives for Permanent Secretaries, underpinned by clear KPIs and expectations, will be agreed with Secretaries of State and reviewed regularly throughout the year. All SCS performance outcomes will be subject to Cabinet Office consistency checking.
Asked by: Mike Wood (Conservative - Kingswinford and South Staffordshire)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, with reference to his speech entitled Move fast. Fix things, delivered on 20 January 2026, whether KPIs set by Ministers will be subject to consistency checks by his Department.
Answered by Satvir Kaur - Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)
The Cabinet Secretary is introducing a new accountability and performance framework for Permanent Secretaries, designed to focus on delivering the Prime Minister's priorities and holding people to account for doing so. As part of this, objectives for Permanent Secretaries, underpinned by clear KPIs and expectations, will be agreed with Secretaries of State and reviewed regularly throughout the year. All SCS performance outcomes will be subject to Cabinet Office consistency checking.
Asked by: Shockat Adam (Independent - Leicester South)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, if he will set out the assurances his Department received from Capita on being able to meet their obligations under the contract to administer the Civil Service Pension Scheme prior to the contract being awarded.
Answered by Satvir Kaur - Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)
The Cabinet Office awarded the contract to administer the Civil Service Pension Scheme to Capita in November 2023 under the previous government.
The issues and delays facing a number of civil servants and pension scheme members in receiving their pension quotes are unacceptable. I want to reassure you that this Government has taken firm action to help put things right as soon as possible. We have agreed a clear recovery plan with Capita, which includes specific milestones and accountability targets for delivery. For priority cases, we have deployed additional resources and improved communication with affected colleagues, so that staff, both former and serving, receive the quality of service and support they deserve.
Existing Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) have been enhanced and strengthened to deliver improved performance and higher penalties for failure, including financial penalties. These have already applied in respect to Capita's performance with recent issues and delays in administering the Civil Service Pension Scheme.
Capita prioritised the most urgent cases and by the end of February, all death in service cases were either settled or progressed to the final stage or awaiting a member response. The same position was reached for ill health retirement applications by mid-March.
The Cabinet Office will continue to use all available commercial levers to hold Capita to account and ensure they deliver the contractual service levels.
Asked by: Shockat Adam (Independent - Leicester South)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what contract penalty clauses relating to delivery failures were included in the Civil Service Pension Scheme administration contract.
Answered by Satvir Kaur - Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)
The Cabinet Office awarded the contract to administer the Civil Service Pension Scheme to Capita in November 2023 under the previous government.
The issues and delays facing a number of civil servants and pension scheme members in receiving their pension quotes are unacceptable. I want to reassure you that this Government has taken firm action to help put things right as soon as possible. We have agreed a clear recovery plan with Capita, which includes specific milestones and accountability targets for delivery. For priority cases, we have deployed additional resources and improved communication with affected colleagues, so that staff, both former and serving, receive the quality of service and support they deserve.
Existing Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) have been enhanced and strengthened to deliver improved performance and higher penalties for failure, including financial penalties. These have already applied in respect to Capita's performance with recent issues and delays in administering the Civil Service Pension Scheme.
Capita prioritised the most urgent cases and by the end of February, all death in service cases were either settled or progressed to the final stage or awaiting a member response. The same position was reached for ill health retirement applications by mid-March.
The Cabinet Office will continue to use all available commercial levers to hold Capita to account and ensure they deliver the contractual service levels.
Asked by: Mike Wood (Conservative - Kingswinford and South Staffordshire)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, pursuant to the answer of 2 February 2026, to Question 108238, on Senior Civil Servants: Redundancy Pay, for what reason his exit payment was a severance payment.
Answered by Satvir Kaur - Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)
I refer the Hon Member to Minister Turley’s answers on 20 January 2026 (PQs 104805 and 104161). The business case for the Cabinet Secretary’s departure from the Civil Service was calculated on the basis of the Civil Service Compensation Scheme.
Asked by: Mark Pritchard (Conservative - The Wrekin)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, if he will introduce pre-confirmation hearings before relevant select committees for permanent secretary appointments for government departments.
Answered by Satvir Kaur - Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)
There are no plans to introduce pre-appointment hearings for Permanent Secretary roles.
Asked by: Rebecca Paul (Conservative - Reigate)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what steps his Department has taken to ensure that Civil Service workplace policies fully comply with the Equality Act 2010 as interpreted in the ruling of the Supreme Court in For Women Scotland Ltd v The Scottish Ministers since 16 April 2025.
Answered by Satvir Kaur - Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)
All Civil Service workplace policies are developed, reviewed and appropriately updated to ensure that they follow the law, including the Equality Act 2010.
Departments are taking specialist legal advice where necessary and ensuring that any revisions to existing policies are made in accordance with legal advice or recent rulings.
Asked by: Mike Wood (Conservative - Kingswinford and South Staffordshire)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, pursuant to the answer of 10 April 2026 to Question 113783 on Cabinet Office: Reviews, whether staff previously employed by Labour Together were involved in the fact finding exercise.
Answered by Chris Ward - Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)
No staff previously employed by Labour Together were involved in the fact finding exercise.
Asked by: Mike Wood (Conservative - Kingswinford and South Staffordshire)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, whether his Department has assessed the salary outcomes, promotion rates and role progression of participants in the Beyond Boundaries programme compared to a control group of comparable civil servants who did not participate; and whether his Department has undertaken a cost benefit analysis of the programme, including average time to promotion, changes in performance markings, retention rates and the financial return on investment to the public purse.
Answered by Satvir Kaur - Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)
Beyond Boundaries is a 12-month cross-government talent programme that launched in 2021 and in October 2025 we welcomed 794 participants. It is designed to help participants develop the knowledge, skills and networks required to build a satisfying and effective career in the Civil Service. There has been no direct comparison of Beyond Boundaries participants against a control group. Current evaluation data is based upon an anonymous, post programme, survey of participants providing an aggregated picture of participant outcomes.
In future, Beyond Boundaries will be part of the National School for Government and Public Services and since October 2025 has been supporting our mission to deliver more training in-house and reduce expenditure on external providers to provide better value for the taxpayer. This provided departments with a reduction in the cost per learner of 37.5%