Committees

Civil service pensions

Inquiry

The civil service pension scheme has 1.7m members, either in work or retired. It paid out just under £8bn to scheme members in 2023-24, with its total liabilities coming to nearly £190bn in the same year. The Cabinet Office contracted with MyCSP to administer the scheme in 2014, taking over from Capita, who are due to take over the contract once again from late 2025. 

During MyCSP’s administration of the contract, a number of changes to civil service pensions have impacted on what members need from their administrator and issues in the wider pensions landscape may have affected how MyCSP manages customer service. In particular the 2018 McCloud judgment, which found that the government discriminated against younger members of public service pension schemes, affected all public service pension schemes. Complaints received by the civil service pension scheme increased from 1,795 in a year to 3,753 between 2021-22 and 2022-23.  

The PAC’s Public Sector Pensions report in 2021 said that HM Treasury had done little to identify and manage the stark differences in average pensions between genders and other groups, and should have foreseen the age discrimination issue that gave rise to the McCloud judgment. The National Audit Office (NAO) investigated members’ experience of civil service pension administration in 2016, which found some scheme members had experienced serious problems with the way their individual cases had been processed. 

The NAO in 2025 investigated the administration of the civil service pension scheme. Informed by the NAO’s findings, the PAC will hear from senior Cabinet Office officials on the levels of customer service scheme members are now receiving, and the upcoming transfer of administration to Capita. 

If you have evidence on these issues please submit it here by 23:59 on Monday 23 June 2025. 

Please look at the requirements for written evidence submissions and note that the Committee cannot accept material as evidence that is published elsewhere. 

Please note that the Committee’s inquiry cannot assist with individual cases.  If you need help with an individual problem you are having, you may wish to read the information on Parliament’s website about who you can contact with different issues. 

This inquiry is no longer accepting evidence

The deadline for submissions was 11:59pm on 23 June 2025.

Upcoming events

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Past events

Wednesday 8 July 2026
12:25pm Private
12:45pm Public
Civil service pensions - Oral evidence 8 July 2026
12:45pm
  • Rt Hon Nick Thomas-Symonds MP (Minister at Cabinet Office)
  • Cat Little CB (Chief Operating Officer at Civil Service, and Permanent Secretary at Cabinet Office)
  • Andrew Forzani (Government Chief Commercial Officer at Cabinet Office)
  • Angela MacDonald (Permanent Secretary and Deputy Chief Executive at HMRC)
2:45pm
  • Adolfo Hernandez (Group Chief Executive Officer at Capita)
  • Richard Holroyd (Chief Executive Officer at Capita Public Services)
  • Chris Clements (Managing Director (Pensions) at Capita Public Services)
The Boothroyd Room, Portcullis House
Thursday 26 March 2026
9:30am Private
10:00am Public
Civil service pensions - Oral evidence 26 March 2026
10:00am
  • Richard Holroyd (Chief Executive Officer at Capita Public Services)
  • Chris Clements (Managing Director at Capita Public Services)
The Grimond Room, Portcullis House
Thursday 12 February 2026
9:30am Private
10:00am Public
Oral evidence session 12 February 2026
NAO Main Estimates 2026-27 - Oral evidence
10:00am
  • Gareth Davies (Comptroller and Auditor General at National Audit Office)
  • Rebecca Sheeran (Chief Operating Officer at National Audit Office)
  • Max Tse (Executive Director at National Audit Office)
Civil service pensions - Oral evidence
11:00am
  • Richard Holroyd (Chief Executive Officer at Capita Public Services)
  • Chris Clements (Managing Director at Capita Public Services)
The Grimond Room, Portcullis House
Monday 7 July 2025
3:00pm Private
3:30pm Public
Civil service pensions - Oral evidence 7 July 2025
3:30pm
  • Cat Little CB (Chief Operating Officer and Permanent Secretary at Cabinet Office)
  • Fiona Ryland (Government Chief People Officer at Cabinet Office)
  • Muna Rowe (Pensions Deputy Director, Government People Group and Programme SRO at Cabinet Office)
  • Duncan Watson (CEO at MyCSP)
The Grimond Room, Portcullis House

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