Ian Lavery

Ian Lavery

Labour — Blyth and Ashington

Speaking in the House of Commons on 4 February 2026

Debate

Civil Service Pension Scheme: Administration

Contribution

I totally agree with my hon. Friend. I will refer to three of my constituents. Mr Brown, from Bedlington, who retired in December and cannot get any response whatsoever to his inquiries. Mr Newell, who worked in the civil service for 40 years and has a number of questions regarding Capita, which I will send to my right hon. Friend the Minister. He spent 21 hours in total on the telephone waiting for a response, and he had additional problems. Mr Davies from Choppington raised a problem with the portal, where people cannot access details. Those are three real issues. We need to pause the voluntary exit scheme and focus on those people who are not in receipt of their pensions at this moment in time. There needs to be more resourcing, with more staff employed to get rid of the backlog. Again, as my right hon. Friend the Member for Hayes and Harlington said, we need to consider whether Capita is carrying out the job it is supposed to. It is time to have a look at Capita and see whether it is doing the job correctly. If it is not, penalties must apply.

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