Asked by: Gregory Stafford (Conservative - Farnham and Bordon)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what assessment he has made of the trend in the levels of timeliness of Civil Service Pension payments since Capita took over administration of the MyCSP system on 1 December 2025.
Answered by Anna Turley - Minister without Portfolio (Cabinet Office)
Capita took over the administration on 1 December 2025. Since then, Capita has completed pension payments to approximately 730,000 retired members on time. However, some civil servants and pension scheme members are facing unacceptable delays in accessing their pension payments.
While Capita inherited a significant backlog of cases from the previous provider, MyCSP, this is now worse and we are urgently addressing that. In response, we have set up a dedicated team to work urgently with Capita, with 650 full time staff across Government and Capita clearing critical cases by the end of February and restoring normal service as soon as possible.
We have agreed a clear recovery plan with Capita, which includes specific milestones and accountability targets for delivery. This includes specific commitments to restore service levels for priority cases, deploy additional resources, and improve communication with affected colleagues, so that staff, both former and serving, receive the quality of service and support they deserve.
Asked by: Gregory Stafford (Conservative - Farnham and Bordon)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what guidance his Department provides on financial settlements for public appointments that are cancelled or withdrawn.
Answered by Nick Thomas-Symonds - Paymaster General and Minister for the Cabinet Office
There are a wide variety of public appointments which are made by Ministers. A person appointed to such a position is an office holder, whose appointment is defined by the office itself, not a contract.
An office holder’s terms of engagement will set out a Minister’s authority to terminate an appointment at any time with or without notice. Office holders do not receive payment in lieu of notice or severance for loss of office because they are not employees with contractual rights.
Asked by: Gregory Stafford (Conservative - Farnham and Bordon)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, if he will make it his policy to prohibit (a) Government agencies and (b) Departments from (i) engaging and (ii) endorsing commercial intermediaries that charge users for access to otherwise free public services.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
It is for those departments providing services to the public to ensure that third parties do not mislead citizens into making additional or unnecessary payments for accessing those services.
Asked by: Gregory Stafford (Conservative - Farnham and Bordon)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what steps his Department is taking to prevent unofficial websites from charging fees for government services that are otherwise free of charge.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
It is for those departments providing services to the public to ensure that third parties do not mislead citizens into making additional or unnecessary payments for accessing those services.
Asked by: Gregory Stafford (Conservative - Farnham and Bordon)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, whether the Government has considered establishing a regulatory framework for third-party entities that charge for assisting with (a) Government transactions, (b) DVLA licence renewals and (c) passport applications.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
It is for those departments providing services to the public to ensure that third parties do not mislead citizens into making additional or unnecessary payments for accessing those services.
Asked by: Gregory Stafford (Conservative - Farnham and Bordon)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, whether he has had recent discussions with the Advertising Standards Authority on tackling misleading advertising by commercial intermediaries offering access to government services.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
The Minister for the Cabinet Office has not had any recent discussions with the Advertising Standards Authority specifically relating to this topic.
Asked by: Gregory Stafford (Conservative - Farnham and Bordon)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, whether his Department has made an estimate of the number of (a) third-party organisations and (b) quasi-autonomous non-governmental organisations that charge for facilitating access to free government services.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
Information on third-party organisations and quasi-autonomous non-governmental organisations that charge for facilitating access to services provided free of charge is not held by the Cabinet Office.
Asked by: Gregory Stafford (Conservative - Farnham and Bordon)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, whether his Department holds data on the number of days of strike action by council waste and recycling workers in each of the last three financial years.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
The information requested falls under the remit of the UK Statistics Authority.
A response to the Hon Gentleman’s Parliamentary Question of 4th October 2024 is attached.