Oral Answers to Questions

Euan Stainbank Excerpts

Thursday 25th June 2026 Commons Chamber

[Dame Angela Eagle]

When I was first in government in 1997, I discovered that I was the Minister for Canals, which was a particularly enjoyable part of the brief, so I understand what the hon. Lady is saying. My previous Department, the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, does a lot on this issue, so I will contact the Water Minister. We can liaise, and I will be in touch with the hon. Lady.

[Euan Stainbank (Falkirk) (Lab)]

6. What recent assessment he has made of the potential merits of insourcing the civil service pension scheme.

[The Parliamentary Secretary, Cabinet Office (Satvir Kaur)]

I thank my hon. Friend for his engagement on this issue, which we have spoken about several times; he is a powerful advocate for his constituents. He will understand that we are currently prioritising and focusing on immediate service recovery. If Capita fails to restore core pension functions to contractual levels by the end of June, we will consider all available options to rectify the situation. We are preparing and planning for all eventualities.

[Euan Stainbank]

Capita has been fined millions for a multitude of past failures and has now failed to handle civil service pensions on a contract that the Tories signed off in November 2023, replacing MyCSP, which faced similar challenges. That has been to the significant detriment of many of my constituents, who are still waiting for payment—one is retired after receiving lifesaving surgery last year, and another is still waiting for payment 11 months on from being bereaved after the death of his wife. Will the Minister—I hope that the Government can answer this closer to the end of June—directly address Capita’s failure, end the contract and insource the civil service pension scheme?

[Satvir Kaur]

My hon. Friend is right to highlight that outsourcing by default does not work, and I agree with his assessment of Capita’s unacceptable failures. Our priority remains supporting those impacted and achieving full service recovery. As I mentioned, if Capita fails to deliver on that by the end of June, all options will be considered. Subject to your agreement, Mr Speaker, my right hon. Friend the Paymaster General intends to make a statement to the House on the Government’s next steps.

--- Later in debate ---

[Darren Jones]

We have established a Cabinet Sub-Committee called the Middle East Response Committee, chaired by the Prime Minister, which has met weekly. I, as Chief Secretary to the Prime Minister, have chaired senior ministerial groups underpinning that work to ensure we have a clear understanding of the impact of the conflict in the middle east on the UK domestic economy in relation to supply chains, the security of critical goods and the economic impact. That work is informing Government decisions to protect British citizens and the UK economy as best we can from that conflict.

[Euan Stainbank (Falkirk) (Lab)]

Following the Government’s welcome designation of four sectors as critical to national security, we have continued to see an exponential rise in under-investigation Chinese buses on our streets. In my constituency, 125 jobs were put at risk back in March following an SNP grant scheme that sent the lion’s share of the public money to Chinese manufacturers. I will repeat the question I asked the Prime Minister a few weeks ago: will the Minister designate bus manufacturing as a sector critical to national security?

[Chris Ward]

As I said earlier, my hon. Friend has raised this with me a number of times, and he is absolutely right to do so. I have spoken with the Department for Transport and security teams about this, and we are looking at it. We have started with four sectors and we want to go further. We are also taking a lot of other steps to help the bus manufacturing industry, as I set out earlier.