Civil Service Pensions

Lord Balfe Excerpts

Monday 13th July 2026 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Anderson of Stoke-on-Trent (Lab)]

The noble Baroness is right: the reality is that Capita provides contracts across government. In fact, we are its single biggest client, I believe. Capita holds a total of 85 contracts across the public sector: 39 in central government and 46 in the wider public sector. Some 87% of its KPIs—key performance indicators—are rated as good. But the noble Baroness is absolutely right, which is why we are now reviewing Capita’s performance across the government portfolio.

[Lord Balfe (Con)]

My Lords, I declare an interest: I am a member of this scheme. Let no one say that the British became bad Europeans lately: in 1978, in a last-minute endeavour to put off direct elections, Jim Callaghan persuaded the Council of Ministers that, instead of having a common European pension and salary, MEPs would be paid and pensioned by their member state. That lasted until—believe it or not—2009. Of course, he had not thought it out. When he came back, the then Civil Service Pension Scheme, based in Basingstoke, was told to organise a pension, which it did. After many years, the European Parliament Members’ pension scheme for British Members up to 2004 is run by Capita. It is run as an adjunct to the MPs’ scheme, except that it is contributory but not funded. In other words, the money is not invested. I have been either a manager or a chair of managers of that scheme ever since 1979. I then became chair of the European Parliament’s scheme.

I have found that there has been complete obfuscation between the Civil Service and Capita as to what we can be told. My plea to the Minister is to please ask for greater transparency. I find it completely unacceptable that I can read the obituary of a colleague in the paper and then be told by Capita that it is information protected by GDPR—it cannot tell me who has died, even though I can tell Capita. Will the Minister try to get some greater clarity, so that the present managers—there are only seven of them—can at least find out who their pensioners are, whether they are still alive and any other salient facts? It is just not acceptable.

[Baroness Anderson of Stoke-on-Trent (Lab)]

I thank the noble Lord. One of the reasons I love being a Member of your Lordships’ House is that every day is a history lesson, including about history that happened before I was born—I say that just to make me feel better. The noble Lord raises an important point about transparency. He will be aware that I am the Minister with responsibility for standards, so how could I do anything other than make sure that my officials meet him to try to get him the answers he is looking for?