Business of the House

Wera Hobhouse Excerpts

Thursday 19th March 2026 Commons Chamber

[Sir Alan Campbell]

My hon. Friend rightly draws attention to the fact that the Government have delivered justice for members of the former British Coal pension scheme. I thank him for the role he played in the campaign to persuade the Government to do that. He may wish to raise his question directly with Ministers at Energy Security and Net Zero oral questions next week to see what more could be done. Should he seek a meeting with Ministers on that, I will help him to arrange one.

[Wera Hobhouse (Bath) (LD)]

At a time of heightened global tension, we must be aware of how important it is that we look after our current and ex-service personnel. I have a constituent who served in the Army and later in the Ministry of Defence for 50 years. He survived stage 4 cancer and his illness is now forcing him to retire. Capita, which administers the civil service pension scheme, has taken over two years to get a statement to him about his pension, ultimately delaying the moment when he can retire. That is just one of five different civil service pension cases that my office has had to deal with in the last three months, none of which has received responses from Capita. May we have a statement from the relevant Minister about how we will improve the situation for my constituents and for many across the country?

[Sir Alan Campbell]

I am sorry to hear of the hon. Lady’s constituents. Veterans and servicemen and women are held very highly in our thoughts and regard. The delay that she describes is unacceptable; it is not the service that people deserve and resolving the matter is of the utmost urgency. There is a recovery plan under way and an interest-free loan is being made available by Departments to provide immediate financial support. The Cabinet Office is also using every opportunity to hold Capita to account and ensure that it delivers. It is about individual cases, so if the hon. Lady wishes to raise that individual case with me, I will see whether we can resolve that. However, there is the wider issue about how we can resolve this for everyone—I imagine there is a case in just about every constituency—so that everybody gets the justice that they deserve.