Committee publication · Correspondence · 4 September 2025

Letter from the Civil Service Chief Operating Officer and Cabinet Office Permanent Secretary relating to the follow ups on the oral evidence session held on 07 July 2025 on Civil Service Pensions, 28 July 2025

Summary

Catherine Little, Civil Service Chief Operating Officer, writes to the Public Accounts Committee following oral evidence on 7 July 2025 about Civil Service Pension Scheme administration. She provides written responses to committee questions on trade union recognition, past performance in procurement, pension statement issuance rates, and call centre performance metrics for MyCSP, the incumbent pension administrator, ahead of transition to Capita on 1 December 2025.

Key findings

Government has no specific policy requiring trade union recognition in contracts; Capita is expected to meet with PCS to establish recognition agreement once contract commences on 1 December 2025.
Past performance of suppliers can only be grounds for exclusion under Public Procurement Regulations 2015 if significant enough to warrant early contract termination; no such grounds identified for Capita in selection process.
MyCSP call answer rate within 80 seconds improved from 10% (Nov 2024–Feb 2025) to 33% (Mar–June 2025); bereavement line achieved 99.3% answer rate within 80 seconds.
As of 10 July 2025, 38,967 members confirmed their choice in Remedial Service Statement exercise; MyCSP issuing 46.6% of total in-scope population (82,466 members) before contract exit.
Customer Satisfaction remained flat at 4.1; Customer Experience Scores slightly declined from 2.7 to 2.6.

Tone

Procedural

Topics

civil-service-pensionspublic-procurementemployment-relationscustomer-service

Key actors

Catherine Little CB, Sir Geoffrey Clifton Brown MP, Public Accounts Committee, Capita, MyCSP, Duncan Watson, PCS

Notable line

“As far as whether Capita will recognise trade unions and specifically PCS for this contract, clearly this is matter for Capita themselves to confirm.”

Key Quotes

“Thank you for the opportunity to attend the Public Accounts Committee on the 7 July to discuss the administration of the Civil Service Pension Scheme.”
— Catherine Little CB · Opening acknowledgement of oral evidence session

“There is no specific government policy requiring trade union recognition in contracts. This is consistent with provisions in the Employment Act 1982 which aims to prevent employers from being compelled by contract to recognise trade unions or engage in negotiations …”
— Catherine Little CB · Explaining government position on trade union recognition in procurement

“We know Capita currently recognises PCS in a number of its other public sector contracts and we understand they plan to meet with the PCS with a view to putting in place a suitable recognition agreement with PCS once the contract commences on 1 December.”
— Catherine Little CB · Describing Capita's expected approach to trade union recognition

“… to exclude a supplier on the grounds of past performance it would have been significant to the point of a contract being terminated early.”
— Catherine Little CB · Addressing committee questions on past performance consideration in procurement

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Source · parliament.uk record ↗