Civil Service Pensions

Rachel Gilmour Excerpts

Monday 26th October 2026 Commons Chamber

[Sally Jameson]

I am sorry to hear of the experience of my hon. Friend’s constituent, which is particularly terrible. I encourage him to write to me about it, so that I can look into it. As for bringing the scheme back in house, we are looking at all the different in-house options at the minute; we have a team doing that. We are working with the trade unions and other experts on it, but I am really clear that Capita needs to clean up this mess; it will not be the UK taxpayer who pays to do it. We will make sure that we recoup any costs of the additional support that we have provided.

[Rachel Gilmour (Tiverton and Minehead) (LD)]

I thank the Minister for her statement. I, too, am on the Public Accounts Committee, and as the hon. Member for North Cotswolds (Sir Geoffrey Clifton-Brown) mentioned, we have done our best to get reasonable responses from Capita. My constituent Jane has been failed time and again by Capita; there has been a five-year delay to her pension payments, poor communication, an unexplained suspension of her pension, and now an outrageous demand that she repay £8,000 because of Capita’s mistake, not hers. Will the Minister condemn that treatment and reassure my constituent that the Government will ensure that she is treated fairly following those serious errors? Will they ensure that Capita, as a contractor acting on behalf of the state, is properly held to account for its failures? That has not happened so far.

[Sally Jameson]

I am sorry to learn of the terrible experience of the hon. Member’s constituent; there are many more like it. If she would like to write to me about that, I would be happy to look into it. I will continue to hold Capita to account. We have withheld nearly £10 million of contractual payments, and Capita is voluntarily invoicing a 10% reduction in its fee until the service is restored to an appropriate level.