Civil Service Pensions

Debate between Mark Pritchard and Sally Jameson

Monday 26th October 2026 Commons Chamber

[Sally Jameson]

I will continue to challenge Capita about that. I have already done so, particularly in relation to correspondence from Members to which its responses have not been acceptable. If my hon. Friend will write to me about any specific cases, in particular the one that he has mentioned, I will happily put that in front of Capita myself.

[Mark Pritchard (The Wrekin) (Con)]

Let us not sugar-coat this: the contract has been a complete flop. Yes, it was awarded under a past Government, but now it is under the current Government—but of course the Prime Minister is setting the standard of not playing the blame game, although I have heard a lot of that today. What my constituents want to hear is when this will be sorted out. Ministers have talked about a recovery plan in April—fail. They talked about a recovery plan in June—fail. They talked about a recovery plan in September —fail. There has been failure after failure after failure. Will the Minister answer the question put by my hon. Friend the Member for Kingswinford and South Staffordshire (Mike Wood), and tell us whether Capita will be given any other Government contracts? Will my constituents be compensated? This Government wanted to be in government, so now that they are, may I ask when the Minister and the Government will take responsibility for this, take control of the contract, and get it sorted out, because my constituents are suffering?

[Sally Jameson]

I set out in my statement how we are taking responsibility, holding Capita to account and ensuring that it fulfils its contractual obligations. For legal and commercial reasons, I cannot discuss other Government contracts in the House right now, or who might be subject to debarment under the new procurement law—I made that clear in response to earlier questions. We are now moving to a member-led approach and dealing with the most complex cases first. We will be able to see that on the fortnightly update to the website, where members will be able to see cases going down. We will mark progress against that by looking at the cases on the website and the updates that Capita sends me, and by seeing the improvements. If those improvements do not start to materialise in the coming weeks, I will return to the House with what further actions we may take.