Recommendations & Conclusions
27 items
2
Recommendation
49th Report - Administration of the Civ…
Accepted
More than half of members who are drawing their pension and affected by Remedy are facing unacceptable waits until as late as 2027 to have their pension options set out for them. Applying remedies to members requires MyCSP to send Remedial Service Statements (RSSs) to affected members, presenting them with …
Government response. The government agrees and states that its new pensions administrator, Capita, is undertaking discovery work to develop delivery plans for remaining affected members. It expects to conclude discovery by December 2025 and communicate detailed delivery plans and timescales to members …
HM Treasury
3
Recommendation
49th Report - Administration of the Civ…
Accepted
The Cabinet Office has not demonstrated it has sufficient capacity and capability to manage the MyCSP contract effectively and has now failed on two occasions to adequately manage the transition from one supplier to another. The Cabinet Office accepts that the terms of the contract with MyCSP does not enable …
Government response. The government agrees and states it has implemented a new contract with 38 Performance Indicators, including Key Performance Indicators, and a system of Service Points with associated penalties for various levels of failure, to ensure robust accountability and improved customer …
HM Treasury
4
Recommendation
49th Report - Administration of the Civ…
Rejected
In order to ensure a smooth transition from MyCSP to Capita it is important that appropriate consideration is given to the rights of staff members transferring across. MyCSP staff who are members of the PCS union have been on strike over the summer in protest at the lack of PCS …
Government response. The government rejects the recommendation, stating it is prohibited by the Employment Act 1982 from forcing suppliers to recognise trade unions. It clarifies that its Social Value Model requires suppliers to ensure workers are informed of their right to join …
HM Treasury
5
Conclusion
49th Report - Administration of the Civ…
Accepted
There is a clear risk that Capita will not be ready to take over administration of the Scheme as planned on 1 December 2025. The planned date of transfer of administration from MyCSP to Capita is 1 December 2025. However, of the eight transition milestones which have so far passed, …
Government response. The government stated it has existing contingency requirements with MyCSP for system rollback and an option to extend support until May 2026 if needed. It confirmed the decision to transfer services to Capita on 1 December 2025 and informed the …
HM Treasury
6
Recommendation
49th Report - Administration of the Civ…
Rejected
There has been a small market of pension administrators bidding for the contract, potentially limiting the Cabinet Office’s ability to secure value for money for the scheme administration. Capita administered only some elements of the pension scheme before MyCSP took over the contract in 2014 to administer the whole scheme. …
Government response. The government disagreed with the recommendation, stating it is legally required to follow the Procurement Act 2023 and its standard procurement process already includes reviewing in-house solutions for contracts.
HM Treasury
1
Conclusion
49th Report - Administration of the Civ…
Accepted
On the basis of a report by the Comptroller and Auditor General, we took evidence from the Cabinet Office and from MyCSP on the administration of the Civil Service Pension Scheme (the Scheme) and arrangement beings made for the planned transfer of administration from MyCSP to Capita on 1 December …
Government response. The government outlined that Capita's financial model specifies minimum staff levels and will provide 6-monthly updates. Capita is actively recruiting an additional 60% of staff, many already undergoing training, to manage backlogs. The government confirmed the service successfully transitioned to …
HM Treasury
7
Conclusion
49th Report - Administration of the Civ…
Deferred
We asked the Cabinet Office and MyCSP why complaint levels were so high. Both the Cabinet Office and MyCSP told us that complaint levels and performance failures in 2024 were partly attributable to a shortage of staff. MyCSP’s core staffing level peaked in October 2023 before declining from then to …
Government response. The government's response, despite stating agreement and implementation, discussed effective engagement, developer contributions, and support for Local Planning Authorities, completely unrelated to the pension scheme administration and staff shortages mentioned in the committee's conclusion.
HM Treasury
8
Recommendation
49th Report - Administration of the Civ…
Acknowledged
We questioned MyCSP about what it was doing to ensure its staffing level was at the level it needed to be. MyCSP told us that it has recently increased staff numbers and contact centre performance is improving as a result. It said that staffing levels in April 2025 were at …
Government response. The government agrees with the recommendation and states that Capita's financial cost model identifies the minimum staffing levels required, and they are recruiting an additional 60% of staff to bolster the team, with flexible staffing arrangements to cover elasticity in …
HM Treasury
9
Recommendation
49th Report - Administration of the Civ…
Accepted
Capita is planning to have 33 fewer staff in its first year running the Scheme than the 332 MyCSP had at the start of 2025.16 When we queried whether that would be enough to provide the right levels of service to customers, the Cabinet Office told us that it had …
Government response. The government agrees and states that Capita's financial cost model identifies the minimum staffing levels required and that Capita is recruiting an additional 60% of staff to bolster the team and deal with backlogs, with a large number already recruited …
HM Treasury
10
Conclusion
49th Report - Administration of the Civ…
Not Addressed
In response to the 2018 McCloud judgement, the Government created the ‘Remedy’ programme to implement remedies to all affected members across the public sector. Applying remedies to affected civil service members requires MyCSP to send Remedial Service Statements (RSSs) to those members, presenting them with two pension options, essentially either …
Government response. The government response is missing for this conclusion.
HM Treasury
11
Conclusion
49th Report - Administration of the Civ…
Accepted
MyCSP is no longer processing Remedy cases whilst the Cabinet Office considers how it wants to deal with these remaining cases. We asked the Cabinet Office if it has a plan for when the remainder of those who are currently drawing their pension can expect to be contacted about their …
Government response. The government agrees to provide revised options for the Remedy period (2015 to 2022) for the remaining 56% (circa 132,100 impacted members) with discovery work expected to conclude in December 2025. They expect to be able to communicate detailed delivery …
HM Treasury
12
Recommendation
49th Report - Administration of the Civ…
Accepted
The Cabinet Office was unable to tell us how it will decide which members may be waiting up until March 2027 and explained that this would be determined by the data and how the plan is constructed.25 It said that the data comes from multiple sources, in some cases it …
Government response. The government agrees and is working on implementing the Remedy, including providing revised options to the circa 132,100 impacted members who are drawing their pension, with discovery work expected to conclude in December 2025 and plans to communicate detailed delivery …
HM Treasury
13
Recommendation
49th Report - Administration of the Civ…
Acknowledged
The Cabinet Office accepts that the contract with MyCSP has not always given it sufficient commercial levers to influence how the Scheme is being administered,27 despite having made multiple changes to the contract over its lifetime. For example, despite MyCSP’s mixed performance record, the Cabinet Office has only successfully applied …
Government response. The government agrees with the recommendation and states it has embedded a robust contract management policy with a standardised approach for administering and managing contracts, including ensuring staff are skilled and trained, and that the Civil Service Pension Scheme must …
HM Treasury
14
Recommendation
49th Report - Administration of the Civ…
Acknowledged
We asked the Cabinet Office what in the current contract was limiting it from holding MyCSP to account for its performance, and what lessons had been learned going forward with Capita. The Cabinet Office responded that the new contract with Capita now contains service-focused key performance indicators, and that failures …
Government response. The government agrees with the recommendation and states it has embedded a robust contract management policy with a standardised approach for administering and managing contracts, including ensuring staff are skilled and trained, and that the Civil Service Pension Scheme must …
HM Treasury
15
Recommendation
49th Report - Administration of the Civ…
Acknowledged
The Cabinet Office’s difficulties managing the contract are particularly evident when transitioning from one supplier to another. This is the second time the Public Accounts Committee has seen the Cabinet Office fail to manage the successful transition from one administrator of the Scheme to another without a drop in performance …
Government response. The government agrees with the recommendation and states the new contract contains 38 Performance Indicators (PI), broken down into Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) and Subsidiary Performance Indicators (SPIs) which cover all aspects of service delivery and allow for financial penalties.
HM Treasury
16
Recommendation
49th Report - Administration of the Civ…
Acknowledged
We questioned the Cabinet Office about how we can be assured that it had the capacity to ensure that contractors deliver. The Cabinet Office said that it is fairly confident it has the right expertise and capacity to manage the contract, and that the contract management team is significant in …
Government response. The government agrees with the recommendation and states the new contract contains 38 Performance Indicators (PI), broken down into Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) and Subsidiary Performance Indicators (SPIs) which cover all aspects of service delivery and allow for financial penalties.
HM Treasury
17
Recommendation
49th Report - Administration of the Civ…
Rejected
On 24 June 2025, MyCSP staff who are members of the PCS union announced six weeks of strike action planned to take place in the period preceding the transition in protest at the lack of PCS involvement in Transfer of Undertakings (Protection of Employment) (TUPE) negotiations.34 TUPE regulations are intended …
Government response. The government disagrees with the recommendation to ensure suppliers recognise employee voices through union recognition, stating it's prohibited from forcing suppliers to recognise unions under the Employment Act 1982, although the Social Value Act ensures fair working conditions, including the …
HM Treasury
18
Conclusion
49th Report - Administration of the Civ…
Rejected
MyCSP told us that it does not recognise the PCS union for collective bargaining or otherwise, because MyCSP is a part-mutual organisation with an elected, formal employee works council who are involved in negotiating terms, conditions and pay.37 It did, however, state that there were ongoing 31 Q 75 32 …
Government response. The government disagrees with the recommendation to ensure suppliers give adequate recognition to the voice of employees through union recognition. They state that the Model Services Contract has a clause for Social Value that successful bidders must comply with under …
HM Treasury
19
Recommendation
49th Report - Administration of the Civ…
Not Addressed
The Cabinet Office acknowledged that it is in everyone’s interests for unions and members of staff to be listened to and stated that its industrial relations team were providing support and assistance where appropriate. The Cabinet Office also acknowledged it has a responsibility to manage the risk of transfer. It …
Government response. The government responds to a different recommendation on contingency plans for the Capita transition rather than addressing the issues around union recognition and employee negotiations.
HM Treasury
20
Recommendation
49th Report - Administration of the Civ…
Rejected
We queried with the Cabinet Office if it was normal practice to let a contract to an organisation that does not recognise trade unions.42 Although unable to give us a definitive answer at the time, the Cabinet Office subsequently wrote to the Committee to confirm that there is no government …
Government response. The government disagrees with the recommendation to ensure suppliers give adequate recognition to the voice of employees, stating that while the Social Value Model ensures fair working conditions and the right to join a trade union, it's prohibited from forcing …
HM Treasury
21
Recommendation
49th Report - Administration of the Civ…
Accepted
The planned date of transfer of administration from MyCSP to Capita is 1 December 2025. However, of the eight transition milestones which have so far passed, only one has passed with all elements delivered on time.45 At the end of March 2025, the Cabinet Office had withheld £9.6 million from …
Government response. The government agrees with the recommendation and has requirements in place with MyCSP to roll back the system should issues arise during the transition to Capita, allowing service delivery to continue with MyCSP until 31st December 2025, with options to …
HM Treasury
22
Recommendation
49th Report - Administration of the Civ…
Not Addressed
We questioned the Cabinet Office how confident it was that there would be a smooth transition and that members would receive no disruption to service. The Cabinet Office acknowledged that delays to key deliverables were a significant concern though noted that each milestone has a range of work packages that …
Government response. The government responds to a different recommendation on contingency plans for the Capita transition rather than addressing confidence in a smooth transition for members.
HM Treasury
23
Conclusion
49th Report - Administration of the Civ…
Accepted
We checked with the Cabinet Office what contingency plans it had should Capita’s IT systems not be ready on the transition date. The Cabinet Office asserted that it had several plans, including a more gradual roll-out of the Capita technology, and other options which are commercially sensitive, which it agreed …
Government response. The government states it has requirements in place with the current provider MyCSP in the event of a failure in the implementation cutover including the provision to roll back the system and options to extend support until the end of …
HM Treasury
24
Conclusion
49th Report - Administration of the Civ…
Capita administered some elements of the pension scheme before MyCSP took on full responsibility for Scheme administration in 2014.54 Capita is now due to take on that full administrative responsibility from December. Capita already administers the Royal Mail Statutory Pension Scheme on behalf of the Cabinet Office. Capita also administers …
HM Treasury
25
Recommendation
49th Report - Administration of the Civ…
Rejected
Noting the seemingly small concentration of suppliers, we queried with the Cabinet Office if the market for pension providers is too small and, if so, what it is going to do to ensure that it has more options in future contract tenders. The Cabinet Office responded that the market is …
Government response. The government disagrees with the recommendation, stating it adheres to the Procurement Act 2023, conducts market analysis, and reviews in-house solutions before making procurement decisions, ensuring equal treatment and transparency across the process.
HM Treasury
26
Conclusion
49th Report - Administration of the Civ…
Rejected
We asked the Cabinet Office if it considers the past performance of companies when procuring suppliers. It said that it did take past performance into account.58 Subsequently the Cabinet Office has written to the Committee to clarify that public procurement regulations state that consideration of a supplier’s past performance when …
Government response. The government disagrees, stating that it follows the Procurement Act of 2023 which outlines the requirements for ensuring equal treatment and transparency across the procurement process, including reviewing whether an in-house solution is a viable option.
HM Treasury
27
Recommendation
49th Report - Administration of the Civ…
Rejected
If the market isn’t sufficiently competitive, one option we suggested that the Cabinet Office could consider is what value there might be to bringing the work in-house. The Cabinet Office said that ‘insourcing’ was always considered when making such business case appraisals. It said that insourcing was generally, but not …
Government response. The government disagrees with the recommendation to set out its commercial strategy for pension administration including consideration of the benefits and costs of administering the scheme in-house, stating that it follows standard procurement procedures and the Procurement Act 2023.
HM Treasury