Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what steps she is taking to a) verify how many Civil Service Pension Scheme cases have been closed, b) assess how many have resulted in payments and c) ensure unresolved cases are progressed.

Ministers have been clear that Capita’s performance has fallen short of acceptable standards, which is why the Government has taken definitive action and agreed a new Recovery Plan with Capita. Portal queries or contact forms should not be closed without providing a full response to the issue raised. Related to this, Capita recently updated the information available on the members’ portal website. Although a recent portal update aimed to consolidate duplicate cases into a single master case while retaining all information, it caused member concerns that queries were being shut down inaccurately. Where there are concerns that cases have been closed incorrectly, this is being investigated with Capita. To verify the adequacy and consistency of case handling and data, the Government has deployed independent auditors from the Government Internal Audit Agency (GIAA) directly onto Capita’s operational premises, to examine Capita’s case processing methodologies, test the efficiency and effectiveness of these processes, and evaluate the quality of quotations and calculations.