Oral Answers to Questions

Gregory Stafford Excerpts

Thursday 25th June 2026 Commons Chamber

The Minister for the Cabinet Office was asked—

[Gregory Stafford (Farnham and Bordon) (Con)]

1. What recent discussions he has had with Capita on the performance of civil service pension scheme administration.

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

I met Capita’s senior leadership last Wednesday, and told them directly that their operational failures, missed targets and escalating backlog are completely unacceptable. The Cabinet Office continues to monitor performance daily to hold Capita to account robustly. Capita has until the end of June to restore the service to contractual levels.

[Gregory Stafford]

As the Minister will know, behind every statistic and delayed case is a pensioner who is not receiving their pension after years of public service. I have constituents whose cases have been outstanding for months, including one from Farnham whose case took nine months to resolve. The end-of-June deadline is now effectively upon us. Does the Minister genuinely believe that Capita will make that deadline? If not, what sanctions or remedial action will she pursue to resolve the issue?

[Satvir Kaur]

The hon. Gentleman is completely right: those who have given a lifetime of service expect and deserve better. The Cabinet Office has held Capita to account robustly, using all commercial levers. Capita has a strict end-of-June deadline. If it fails to meet that deadline, we will consider all options. With your agreement, Mr Speaker, the Paymaster General intends to make a statement to the House about this issue at the end of the month.