Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what assessment she has made of the performance of Capita against each of the milestones contained in the Civil Service Pension Recovery Plan since February 2026; and what proportion of those milestones have been met on time.

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.

Capita has systematically defaulted on its major operational recovery commitments. They failed to meet critical transition milestones, including the end of April 2026 target to clear inherited payment arrears, the end of May 2026 milestone to bring approximately 2,200 sensitive divorce cases within contractual service levels, and the critical milestone of a complete return to standard contractual service levels by the end of June 2026.

Capita submitted a formal Rectification Plan in July 2026, and the Remedial Advisor Grant Thornton was appointed shortly thereafter at Capita’s expense. Their work will assist the Cabinet Office to test the validity and deliverability of the Plan, and to conduct a technical systems review. We expect to receive this audit information in early October, which will inform the Government's decision on next steps by mid-to-late October.

Further commercial, legal, and operational options remain on the table during the consideration of long-term structural delivery options.

On additional costs, regarding a) additional civil servants deployed, total projected Cabinet Office Pensions Recovery Taskforce and surge support operational costs up to the end of Financial Year 2026-27 stand at £12.5 million.

Costs relating to (b) external advisers, (c) contractors and (d) other costs, are subject to a formal commercial reconciliation exercise that is actively underway to recover Government surge team costs directly from Capita, and the Government has already withheld £9.9 million in contract payments for undelivered milestones.