Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what recent assessment she has made of the adequacy of the performance of the Civil Service Pension Scheme in processing retirement claims.

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. 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.

Following Capita’s failure to meet its commitment to fully restore the scheme to contractual levels by the end of June, Capita’s executive leadership committed to Parliament to clear ‘stock’ cases by 1 September 2026 and process cases within Key Performance Indicators from 30 September 2026.

Capita has claimed to have met its self-imposed 1 September target across five priority areas: Bereavement, Death in Service, Ill-Health Retirement, Retirement Payments, and Retirement Quotes for cases that it categorises as workable. We are working to establish the accuracy of this claim. While this is noted, it does not constitute full service recovery and still leaves far too many scheme members facing uncertainty while they wait for their cases to be resolved. Overall performance remains unacceptable, and the Government continues to hold Capita firmly to account using all commercial levers available to it. Alongside this we continue to work on finding a suitable alternative for future scheme administration, considering all potential options including insourcing.

A written ministerial statement on the situation can be found in Hansard.

A substantive update will be provided to the House in October following the conclusion of the technical audit and report from the Remedial Advisor.