Asked by: Martin Wrigley (Liberal Democrat - Newton Abbot)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for Cabinet Office, pursuant to the question from the member for Kingston and Surbiton at PMQs on 9 September 2026, what steps is the Department taking to ensure that Britain’s AI Security Institute retains access to future advanced AI models developed by overseas companies for independent safety testing.
Answered by Kanishka Narayan - Minister of State (Cabinet Office) (Jointly with the Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Technology)
The AI Security Institute is in daily conversations with AI developers and works closely with our allies and partners around the world on the risks posed by increasingly capable systems. Further detail is provided in Written Statement UIN HCWS314 'Artificial intelligence update'.
Asked by: Martin Wrigley (Liberal Democrat - Newton Abbot)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for Cabinet Office, what assessment has the department made of the potential impact of Anthropic's decision not to provide the UK AI Security Institute with pre-release access to its latest frontier AI model on UK AI safety and national security.
Answered by Kanishka Narayan - Minister of State (Cabinet Office) (Jointly with the Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Technology)
The UK's AI Security Institute (AISI) has built trusted, voluntary relationships with the world's leading AI labs. This collaborative approach lets us keep pace with a fast-moving technology and adapt as it evolves and has allowed AISI to secure privileged access that has identified dozens of vulnerabilities that developers fixed before public release. AISI is in daily conversation with industry partners, including Anthropic, and works closely with allies and partners around the world on the risks posed by increasingly capable AI systems. Further detail is provided in Written Statement UIN HCWS314 'Artificial intelligence update'.
Asked by: Martin Wrigley (Liberal Democrat - Newton Abbot)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what the cost to the public purse is of additional staff and other resources deployed to help resolve the administration of the Civil Service Pension Scheme by Capita since December 2025; and how much of that cost has been recovered from Capita.
Answered by Sally Jameson - Parliamentary Secretary and Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Cabinet Office) (Jointly with the Ministry for Housing, Communities and Local Government)
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.
While Capita committed to a complete return to standard contractual service levels by the end of June 2026, they have failed to meet this critical milestone. The Government is taking robust action to hold Capita to account. This includes withholding £9.9 million in contract payments for undelivered milestones, alongside confirmation that the Government surge team costs will be recovered directly from Capita. To enforce strict compliance, independent auditors are being deployed to conduct a technical systems review, and an on-the-ground Remedial Adviser has been appointed at Capita’s expense. Further commercial, legal, and operational options remain on the table during the consideration of long-term structural delivery options.
Exact costs are subject to an ongoing commercial reconciliation as we comprehensively evaluate the latest service data. While specific operational figures remain commercially sensitive at this stage of the recovery plan, we continue to use all available commercial levers to manage performance and hold the administrator to account.
The appointment of Capita followed a rigorous procurement process conducted in strict accordance with The Public Contracts Regulations 2015 (PCR 2015), with their selection primarily driven by proposed improvements to digital infrastructure and member services. Under the regulations active at the start of the tender, there was no legal remit to penalise a bidder for performance failures on unrelated contracts, such as the Teachers’ Pension Scheme.
Asked by: Martin Wrigley (Liberal Democrat - Newton Abbot)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what assessment was made of the adequacy of Capita's performance in administering other public-sector pension schemes as part of the procurement process for the contract to administer the Civil Service Pension Scheme.
Answered by Sally Jameson - Parliamentary Secretary and Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Cabinet Office) (Jointly with the Ministry for Housing, Communities and Local Government)
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.
While Capita committed to a complete return to standard contractual service levels by the end of June 2026, they have failed to meet this critical milestone. The Government is taking robust action to hold Capita to account. This includes withholding £9.9 million in contract payments for undelivered milestones, alongside confirmation that the Government surge team costs will be recovered directly from Capita. To enforce strict compliance, independent auditors are being deployed to conduct a technical systems review, and an on-the-ground Remedial Adviser has been appointed at Capita’s expense. Further commercial, legal, and operational options remain on the table during the consideration of long-term structural delivery options.
Exact costs are subject to an ongoing commercial reconciliation as we comprehensively evaluate the latest service data. While specific operational figures remain commercially sensitive at this stage of the recovery plan, we continue to use all available commercial levers to manage performance and hold the administrator to account.
The appointment of Capita followed a rigorous procurement process conducted in strict accordance with The Public Contracts Regulations 2015 (PCR 2015), with their selection primarily driven by proposed improvements to digital infrastructure and member services. Under the regulations active at the start of the tender, there was no legal remit to penalise a bidder for performance failures on unrelated contracts, such as the Teachers’ Pension Scheme.
Asked by: Martin Wrigley (Liberal Democrat - Newton Abbot)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, with reference to FOI2025/18430 and Internal Review IR2026/03033, concerning background papers relating to the meeting on 28 August 2019 attended by Boris Johnson, Peter Thiel and Dominic Cummings, what specific prejudice to the effective conduct of public affairs was identified as arising from disclosure of those papers.
Answered by Nick Thomas-Symonds
As set out in its response of 4 February 2026, the Cabinet Office recognises that there is a public interest in the transparency in how it makes decisions on responses to written parliamentary questions.
However, effective responses to written parliamentary questions rely on a safe space within which issues can be discussed openly and frankly.
The disclosure of the requested information would have a prejudicial effect on these relationships, which would not be in the public interest.
Asked by: Martin Wrigley (Liberal Democrat - Newton Abbot)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, pursuant to the Answer of 18 March 2026 to Question 117973, what comparative assessment his Department has made of the (a) scale, (b) scope and (c) criticality of the services provided by Palantir with the services provided by companies classified as cross‑Government Strategic Suppliers; and what his Department's process is for classifying a supplier as a cross‑Government Strategic Supplier.
Answered by Chris Ward
Suppliers are chosen as cross Government Strategic Suppliers following a supplier segmentation exercise based on the scale, scope and criticality of the services they provide. Those that are viewed as having the highest levels against these three criteria are chosen.
Palantir has not been designated as a cross-government Strategic Supplier.
Asked by: Martin Wrigley (Liberal Democrat - Newton Abbot)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, if he will consider the implementation of enabling powers within the European Partnership Bill to support a future UK-EU youth mobility scheme for young professionals.
Answered by Nick Thomas-Symonds
The European Partnership Bill will provide a framework of powers to ensure agreements with the European Union can be implemented now and in the future.
Any youth experience scheme with the EU would provide a dedicated immigration pathway for young people from the EU, and young British citizens, to study, work, travel, and switch between these activities. We anticipate that such a scheme would be implemented through changes to the Immigration Rules, rather than via enabling powers within the European Partnership Bill.
Asked by: Martin Wrigley (Liberal Democrat - Newton Abbot)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of introducing a written constitution.
Answered by Nick Thomas-Symonds
The UK’s uncodified constitution has evolved over time and is made up of conventions, statutes, judicial decisions, principles and practices. It is the Government’s view that one of the strengths of our constitution is its flexibility and ability to evolve in response to changing circumstances. The Government therefore has no plans to introduce a codified constitution.
Asked by: Martin Wrigley (Liberal Democrat - Newton Abbot)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what information his Department holds on the proportion of retirement benefit calculations issued by Capita under the Civil Service Pension Scheme which were determined to be correct at first issue in the most recent period for which data is available.
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.
Pension quotation requests are prioritised on the basis of the retirement date to the extent that Capita has all of the required data and information to process the quotation. This may mean that some later retirement dates are processed ahead of earlier retirement dates. Death in service and ill-health cases are also prioritised.
All retirement benefit calculations issued by Capita under the Civil Service Pension Scheme are based entirely on the latest data provided by the employer. Because these calculations rely directly on verified employer inputs, all quotes are deemed to be correct at the point of first issue.
The Cabinet Office is unable to provide a specific breakdown of the number of Civil Service Pension Scheme members who reached their retirement date before receiving a retirement benefits quotation, as members retire at different times, including early, late, or partial retirement. Around 20,000 members currently await pension quotations from Capita, including outstanding historical cases left unprocessed by the previous administrator.
Asked by: Martin Wrigley (Liberal Democrat - Newton Abbot)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, how many members of the Civil Service Pension Scheme reached their retirement date before receiving a retirement benefits quotation in the most recent period for which data is available.
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.
Pension quotation requests are prioritised on the basis of the retirement date to the extent that Capita has all of the required data and information to process the quotation. This may mean that some later retirement dates are processed ahead of earlier retirement dates. Death in service and ill-health cases are also prioritised.
All retirement benefit calculations issued by Capita under the Civil Service Pension Scheme are based entirely on the latest data provided by the employer. Because these calculations rely directly on verified employer inputs, all quotes are deemed to be correct at the point of first issue.
The Cabinet Office is unable to provide a specific breakdown of the number of Civil Service Pension Scheme members who reached their retirement date before receiving a retirement benefits quotation, as members retire at different times, including early, late, or partial retirement. Around 20,000 members currently await pension quotations from Capita, including outstanding historical cases left unprocessed by the previous administrator.