Committee publication · Correspondence · 4 September 2025

Letter from the Civil Service Chief Operating Officer and Cabinet Officer Permanent Secretary relating to the transition arrangements to Capita for the new administration of the Civil Service Pension Scheme and contingency plans, 05 August 2025

Summary

Catherine Little, Civil Service Chief Operating Officer, updates the Public Accounts Committee on transition arrangements for Capita's administration of the Civil Service Pension Scheme. The Cabinet Office is reprofiling the transition to ensure safe implementation by 1 December 2025, with full rollout by 31 March 2026. Contingency plans exist but are commercially sensitive. The letter addresses IT improvements, market resilience, and outstanding legal cases regarding teachers' pension calculations.

Key findings

Transition milestones: Minimum Viable Product agreed end-July; Go/No Go decision end-September; cutover November 2025; go-live 1 December 2025; full implementation 31 March 2026.
Contingency plans are in place but commercially sensitive; Cabinet Office prefers to brief Committee verbally rather than document details.
Day 1 release (1 December) will include employer portal and member data interfaces; Day 2 release (March 2026) will deliver Capita performance reporting remote access.
Capita has cleared 2,590 of 3,062 backlogged teachers' pension CETV cases; 472 complex cases remain pending HM Treasury and Government Actuary Department guidance.
Cabinet Office engaging Crown Commercial Service to develop cross-government pension procurement framework and understand why bidders withdrew from recent procurement.

Tone

Procedural

Topics

public-pensionsgovernment-procurementit-deliverycivil-service-administration

Key actors

Catherine Little CB, Sir Geoffrey Clifton Brown MP, Cabinet Office, Capita, Crown Commercial Service, Government Actuary Department, HM Treasury, Department for Education

Notable line

“… the Cabinet Office Pensions team is working closely with Capita to reprofile the transition delivery in a way which ensures the safe implementation of the new systems and transfer of services …”

Key Quotes

“… the Cabinet Office Pensions team is working closely with Capita to reprofile the transition delivery in a way which ensures the safe implementation of the new systems and transfer of services from MyCSP to Capita.”
— Catherine Little CB · explaining the transition replanning approach

“To identify the Critical Path of activities and deliverables to deliver a viable and fully assured service from 1 December”
— Catherine Little CB · stating key objective of the replanning exercise

“Details for this contingency planning are commercially sensitive as negotiations continue, and we would prefer to provide a verbal update in a meeting with the Committee.”
— Catherine Little CB · declining to disclose contingency plans in writing

“This solution forms part of the day 1 release and is expected to be live on 1 December”
— Catherine Little CB · describing the employer portal implementation timeline

“Capita have cleared 2,590 of these cases but the remaining 472 cases are complex, so they are awaiting guidance from HM Treasury and the Governments Actuary Department (GAD) in order to clear them.”
— Catherine Little CB · updating on teachers' pension CETV backlog resolution

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Source · parliament.uk record ↗