Asked by: Grahame Morris (Labour - Easington)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what his planned timetable is for completing the remediation of Civil Service Pension Scheme cases arising from the Public Service Pensions and Judicial Offices Act 2022.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)
The Court of Appeal ruled that the pension reforms and transitional protection arrangements introduced in 2015 following the enactment of the Public Service Pensions Scheme 2013, were directly discriminatory on the basis of age.
The 2015 Remedy (McCloud) Programme will end and rectify discrimination within the Civil Service Pension Scheme (CSPS) that arose when reformed public service pension schemes were introduced in 2015.
CSPS has 1.7 million members, of which 420,000 are in scope for the Remedy. This spans current civil servants who are accruing benefits, deferred members who have left service and/or the Scheme and pensioners (including partial and full retirees and those who retired on grounds of ill health or death in service).
The regulatory timeline for delivery of all Immediate Choice Remediable Service Statements (IC RSS) was by 31 March 2025 and 44% of statements were issued by that date, but in complex cases affecting 56% of the Immediate Choice population, the Cabinet Office has exercised its discretion to extend beyond this delivery date by 2 years. As this work progresses, more detail will become available about delivery dates within the next 2 years.
The Cabinet Office is continuing to stress to MyCSP the importance of meeting contractual performance levels and improving member experience.
Asked by: Grahame Morris (Labour - Easington)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what recent assessment she has made of the adequacy of how (a) complaints and (b) errors are (i) identified and (ii) dealt with by MyCSP.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)
There is a robust governance procedure that monitors and reports on all aspects of performance against service levels and performance metrics. This includes regular meetings with MyCSP to review trends and analyse opportunities for improvement and corrective action.
The Cabinet Office is continuing to stress to MyCSP the importance of meeting contractual performance levels and improving member experience.
The new contract for the Civil Service Pension Scheme goes live on the 1st December 2025. The Cabinet Office has reviewed the current performance indicators and has adapted and enhanced these within the new contract which will give the Cabinet Office greater flexibility in managing the administrator of the Civil Service Pension schemes more effectively and encourage innovation across the lifetime of the contract.
The National Audit Office (NAO) published a report on the 16th June 2025 into the administration of the Civil Service Pension Scheme, which is available here:https://www.nao.org.uk/press-releases/cabinet-office-must-improve-customer-experience-in-civil-service-pension-scheme/#report
We are committed to ensuring that any recommendations from the NAO will be acted upon to enhance service delivery and member satisfaction.
Asked by: Grahame Morris (Labour - Easington)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, how many and what proportion of calls to MyCSP went unanswered in each of the last six months.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)
The scheme administrator, MyCSP, received on average 30,090 calls into their enquiry centre between December 2024 - May 2025 as shown in the table below. 24% of all calls received were unanswered by MyCSP.
Calls | Dec-24 | Jan-25 | Feb-25 | Mar-25 | Apr-25 | May-25 | Average |
Calls received | 26,034 | 41,877 | 39,688 | 24,531 | 25,557 | 22,850 | 30,090 |
Answered | 20,892 | 29,327 | 30,472 | 18,850 | 18,795 | 17,731 | 22,678 |
Abandoned | 5,142 | 12,640 | 9,215 | 5,681 | 6,782 | 5,519 | 7,497 |
Abandoned% | 19.75% | 30.18% | 23.22% | 23.16% | 26.54% | 24.10% | 24% |
The Cabinet Office has worked with MyCSP to implement recovery plans aimed at enhancing performance within their Enquiry Centre. In response to increased demands, MyCSP has recruited additional staff, and the Cabinet Office is funding 12 full-time equivalents (FTEs) in the Enquiry Centre specifically to address volumes associated with the 2015 Remedy (McCloud judgement) queries.
The Cabinet Office is continuing to stress to MyCSP the importance of meeting contractual performance levels and improving member experience.
Asked by: Grahame Morris (Labour - Easington)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, how many emails to MyCSP were (a) received and (b) responded to in each of the last six months.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)
The scheme administrator, MyCSP, received on average approximately 68,570 emails per month in the last six months. The table below shows the number of emails received in each of the last 6 months to May 2025.
Emails | Dec-24 | Jan-25 | Feb-25 | Mar-25 | Apr-25 | May-25 | Average |
Total Rec. | 60,889 | 77,751 | 70,095 | 69,145 | 63,250 | 70,289 | 68,570 |
In line with MyCSP performance indicators, there are different targets for responses to enquiries, depending on the nature of those enquiries. Some enquiries - such as an update to a member's address - do not require a formal response. For those that did require a response, over these six months 99% received a response within the relevant timeframe.
The Cabinet Office is continuing to stress to MyCSP the importance of meeting contractual performance levels and improving member experience.
Asked by: Grahame Morris (Labour - Easington)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what the casework backlog is in MyCSP.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)
Currently, the scheme administrator, MyCSP, has 52,748 ongoing work items awaiting processing or further information.
The Cabinet Office is continuing to stress to MyCSP the importance of meeting contractual performance levels and improving member experience.
Asked by: Grahame Morris (Labour - Easington)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, which (a) Departments, (b) agencies and (c) public bodies sponsor staff on skilled worker visas.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)
This information is not held centrally. However, the Civil Service Nationality Rules govern eligibility for employment in the Civil Service and must be followed by government departments in their recruitment and appointment procedures.
Asked by: Grahame Morris (Labour - Easington)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, how many people have died from fentanyl overdose in each of the last five years, broken down by region.
Answered by John Glen
The information requested falls under the remit of the UK Statistics Authority.
A response to the Hon gentleman’s Parliamentary Question of 12 December is attached.
Asked by: Grahame Morris (Labour - Easington)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, how many times Government departments answered Named Day written parliamentary questions stating that it would not be possible to answer a question within the usual time period in each of the last five years.
Answered by Alex Burghart - Shadow Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster
Written parliamentary questions allow MPs and Peers to ask Ministers for information on the work, policy and activities of Government departments. Parliament has a right to hold Ministers to account and it is a recognised right of Parliament that Members receive full and timely responses. Where it is not possible to provide a Named Day answer in full on the specified date, a holding response should be provided to the MP to explain this.
It is the responsibility of individual departments to provide timely answers to Parliamentary Questions from Members. The requested information is not centrally held by the Cabinet Office, and complying with this request would incur a disproportionate cost to the Department.
Asked by: Grahame Morris (Labour - Easington)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, if he will invite representatives from the National Union of Journalists to participate in his Department’s information user rights group.
Answered by Alex Burghart - Shadow Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster
I refer the Member to the answer I gave on 20 July 2023 (UIN 194409).
Groups representing the media were invited to its inaugural meeting held on 4 July 2023.
Asked by: Grahame Morris (Labour - Easington)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what social value criteria the Government considers when awarding public contracts.
Answered by Alex Burghart - Shadow Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster
The Social Value Model launched in January 2021 (PPN 06/20) by this Conservative Government, standardises the assessment of bidder’s proposals for delivering social value outcomes, including tackling economic inequality, creating new businesses, jobs and skills, as well as increasing supply chain resilience and fighting climate change. The Model takes into account factors such as the number of local jobs or apprenticeships a contractor will provide, or the number of SMEs involved in their wider supply chain.
At the same time, the Procurement Bill we are introducing also confirms that while value for money remains paramount during contracting, buyers should take into account other relevant wider social and environmental considerations the supplier may bring.