Asked by: Gregory Campbell (Democratic Unionist Party - East Londonderry)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what steps he is taking to reduce the number of working days lost due to sick leave in the Civil Service.
Answered by Satvir Kaur - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
The Cabinet Office routinely benchmarks the Civil Service approach to employee sickness absence and health and wellbeing to ensure it aligns to best practice.
The Civil Service provides its employees with a comprehensive range of health and wellbeing tools, policies, and measures to ensure that employees remain in work or return to work as quickly as possible following absence due to ill health.
As part of the Civil Service People Plan 2024-27, the Cabinet Office is undertaking research to better understand and address the underlying factors behind mental health-related absence of civil servants.
Asked by: Gregory Campbell (Democratic Unionist Party - East Londonderry)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, pursuant to the Answer of 5 June 2026 to Question 5304, what steps are being taken to improve data collection on the number of deaths where the primary cause was addiction to gambling.
Answered by Satvir Kaur - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
The information requested falls under the remit of the UK Statistics Authority.
A response to the Hon. Gentleman’s Parliamentary Question of 19th June is attached.
Asked by: Gregory Campbell (Democratic Unionist Party - East Londonderry)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what changes have been made in Capita's approach to existing and retired civil servants on pension problems since the commencement of the recovery plan.
Answered by Satvir Kaur - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
The Cabinet Office awarded Capita the contract to administer the Civil Service Pension Scheme in November 2023 under the previous government. The current delays facing scheme members are entirely unacceptable, and this Government has taken firm action to resolve them through a clear recovery plan with strict delivery milestones. We have deployed additional resources to expedite priority cases, ensuring that serving and former staff receive the high standard of service they deserve. Regular progress updates remain available to members via the pension portal and Gov.uk.
Capita is under a firm mandate to restore full service delivery to standard contractual levels by the end of June 2026. We are actively exploring the use of all available commercial and contractual levers and continue to withhold milestone payments for missed transition deliverables. All options remain on the table if they fail to meet the June deadline.
Since the commencement of the recovery plan, Capita’s operational approach has adapted flexibly to address priorities as they arise. To demonstrate the current focus, the published updates progressively change to establish which specific priorities are being actively tackled by the Recovery Task Force at any given time. Further information is available at the following link:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/civil-service-pension-recovery-plan-updates
Capita were initially instructed to prioritise and clear the most urgent cases such as Death in Service and Ill-Health during February and March. While Capita previously assured us that performance standards for Death in Service and Ill-Health were being met by mid-March, recent information continues to demonstrate unacceptable delays in some ill-health retirement and death-in-service cases. We have urgently escalated this to Capita, who are actively investigating the underlying data and reasons for these continued delays.
Capita has issued lump sum payments to 16,776 retired members awaiting their regular pensions, whilst the scheme continues to pay approximately 730,000 existing pensioners on time. To alleviate immediate hardship, employers have issued £14.2 million in Transitional Support Loans to 2,612 members, alongside interest-free bridging loans ranging from £5,000 to £20,000. Members will fully repay these bridging loans upon receipt of their formal pension payments.
Asked by: Gregory Campbell (Democratic Unionist Party - East Londonderry)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, how many people took their own lives in each year between 2015 and 2025 where the primary cause was addiction to gambling.
Answered by Satvir Kaur - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
The information requested falls under the remit of the UK Statistics Authority.
A response to the Hon gentleman’s Parliamentary Question of 1st June is attached.
Asked by: Gregory Campbell (Democratic Unionist Party - East Londonderry)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, when he expects to announce the Partnership Contingent Decision route in connection with the Civil Service Pension Scheme.
Answered by Satvir Kaur - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
The Cabinet Office awarded the contract to administer the Civil Service Pension Scheme to Capita in November 2023 under the previous government.
The CSPS launched the Contingent Decision process for members who opted out of the scheme in July 2025. However, the process for members who switched to the Partnership pension scheme involves additional complexity, requiring the reconciliation of contributions between defined contribution and defined benefit arrangements. Planning is underway to define the process and timeline, and we aim to open the process later in 2026.
Asked by: Gregory Campbell (Democratic Unionist Party - East Londonderry)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, if she will hold discussions with Capita on payments to existing and retired Civil Servants.
Answered by Satvir Kaur - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
Thank you for your question. The Minister for the Cabinet Office has met with the Capita CEO on this issue. Cabinet Office officials also have been and remain in daily contact with Capita to progress the recovery plan, and keep Ministers informed of progress regularly.
Asked by: Gregory Campbell (Democratic Unionist Party - East Londonderry)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, when he plans to respond to WPQ 107963 tabled on 23 January 2025.
Answered by Satvir Kaur - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
A response has been issued here 107963.
Asked by: Gregory Campbell (Democratic Unionist Party - East Londonderry)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what comparative assessment he has made of levels of long term sickness absence in the Civil Service between (a) 2020 and (b) 2025.
Answered by Satvir Kaur - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
Civil Service sickness absence data was published on 16 December 2025 and includes trends in long term absences in the Civil Service between 2020 and 2025.
(Source: Civil Service sickness absence data published on 16 December 2025)
Asked by: Gregory Campbell (Democratic Unionist Party - East Londonderry)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, how many people aged 66 and over are estimated in 2025 to be in (a) full time employment, and (b) part time employment.
Answered by Josh Simons
The information requested falls under the remit of the UK Statistics Authority.
A response to the Hon gentleman’s Parliamentary Question of 15th of December is attached.
Asked by: Gregory Campbell (Democratic Unionist Party - East Londonderry)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, how many transport companies were registered with the Standard Industrial Classification code 49410 for freight transport by road in (a) 2019 and (b) 2024.
Answered by Josh Simons
The information requested falls under the remit of the UK Statistics Authority.
A response to the Hon gentleman’s Parliamentary Question of the 5th of December is attached.