Asked by: Stephen Gethins (Scottish National Party - Arbroath and Broughty Ferry)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what discussions he has had with MyCSP on the timeline for delivery of Immediate Choice Remediable Service Statements for people with civil service pensions.
Answered by Anna Turley - Minister without Portfolio (Cabinet Office)
MyCSP, the current administrators of the Civil Service Pension Scheme (CSPS), continue work on the implementation of circa 132,100 impacted members who are drawing their pension and need to be provided with revised options for the Remedy period (2015 to 2022). This is known as Immediate Choice (IC).
In agreement with the Cabinet Office Pension team, acting as Scheme Managers, MyCSP provided 58,400 IC members with their remedial service statements by March 2025. Of this group, 43,400 members have returned their option forms and all but 500 of these will be implemented by the end of November.
From 1 December 2025, Capita takes over as scheme administrator and as part of this, they will pick up the remaining IC work as a focused programme of work ‘project 7’.This will see the remaining 56% of IC members provided with choices as soon as possible. This project is currently being scoped to establish what work remains and how quickly the work can be completed whilst balancing accuracy and business as usual requirements. Detailed delivery plans will be provided to the Cabinet Office by the end of March 2026.
Asked by: Stephen Gethins (Scottish National Party - Arbroath and Broughty Ferry)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, how many full-time equivalent UK Government civil servants main place of employment is (a) Queen Elizabeth House Edinburgh and (b) elsewhere in Scotland.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
The number of civil servants on a full-time equivalent basis reported as in post as at 31 March 2024 and based in Queen Elizabeth House is 2,760.
The number of civil servants based in Scotland on a full-time equivalent basis as at 31 March 2024 is 51,830. This information is published annually as part of Civil Service Statistics 2025 and available through the Civil Service data browser at the following web address:
https://civil-service-statistics.jdac.service.cabinetoffice.gov.uk/
Asked by: Stephen Gethins (Scottish National Party - Arbroath and Broughty Ferry)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what steps Government is taking to enhance cyber resilience across critical (a) national infrastructure and (b) public institutions.
Answered by Abena Oppong-Asare
We are committed to strengthening cyber security across the UK’s Critical National Infrastructure (CNI), and all aspects of the Government digital estate.
The Government works closely with CNI operators in both the private and public sector to ensure resilience and preparedness to cyber threats, working to better understand and manage cyber risk, and minimise the impact of cyber incidents when they occur. As well as work to develop a more sophisticated understanding of cyber risk across UK CNI, the Government is focussed on ensuring that CNI operators are prepared to respond to and recover from incidents through better planning and regular exercising.
The King's Speech in July 2024 set out the Government’s intention to bring forward a Cyber Security and Resilience Bill, which will strengthen the UK’s cyber defences, and ensure that critical infrastructure and the digital services that companies rely on are secure.
To enhance the cyber resilience of public institutions, the Government Cyber Security Strategy has set a clear target for all government organisations to be resilient to known vulnerabilities and common attack methods by 2030.
Asked by: Stephen Gethins (Scottish National Party - Arbroath and Broughty Ferry)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, how much and what proportion of its budget the UK Integrated Security Fund has allocated for (a) conflict (i) prevention and (ii) resolution and (b) peacebuilding in the (A) 2024-25 and (B) 2025-26 financial years.
Answered by Abena Oppong-Asare
The Integrated Security Fund (ISF) came into operation on 1 April 2024 and has a budget of almost £1bn for Financial Year 2024-25. The Fund prioritises spending on those geographies and thematic issues that pose the greatest direct threat to the UK. Activity focussed on conflict prevention, resolution and peacebuilding are embedded into programmes across the ISF. However, these are not tracked as individual or separate components. The annual ISF budget for 2025-26 will be published shortly.
Asked by: Stephen Gethins (Scottish National Party - Arbroath and Broughty Ferry)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what the annual budget is for the UK Integrated Security Fund in the (a) 2024-25 and (b) 2025-26 financial years.
Answered by Abena Oppong-Asare
The Integrated Security Fund (ISF) came into operation on 1 April 2024 and has a budget of almost £1bn for Financial Year 2024/25. Exact spend for the Fund will be published in the 2024/25 ISF Annual Report later in the year. The annual ISF budget for 2025-26 will be published shortly.