Asked by: Chris Law (Scottish National Party - Dundee West)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what assessment the Government has made of the security of civil servants' pensions data following the cyber attack against Capita in March 2023.
Answered by John Glen - Paymaster General and Minister for the Cabinet Office
The Civil Service Pension Scheme (CSPS) contract has been structured to ensure that robust Information Security including Cyber Security controls are in place. This has been a fundamental principle from the inception of the procurement. As such the procurement has built measures into the CSPS contract and supporting requirements to ensure that Information Security including Cyber Security is of paramount importance throughout all stages of transition and the contract term. This includes:
CSPS requirements including a robust set of security principles that are up to date with the latest His Majesty's Government (HMG) requirements, specifically no off-shoring of CSPS data, annual IT health checks, a monthly Security Working Group to review and investigate any issues relating to security and ongoing requirement to provide Cabinet Office Digital team, assurance against the Cyber Assessment Framework (GovAssure) standard.
Embedding within the CSPS contract is the requirement to ensure that Capita, and the administration solution, will be subject to a rigorous accreditation process prior to any CSPS data being migrated to their infrastructure.
Enhancements being made to the standard Model Service Contract Security Schedule (2.4) to ensure that the Cabinet Office has the contractual leverage to enforce proactive and reactive controls for cyber and data security.
Asked by: Chris Law (Scottish National Party - Dundee West)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what criteria were used to assess the suitability of Capita to administer the Civil Service Pension Scheme for his Department.
Answered by John Glen - Paymaster General and Minister for the Cabinet Office
The Civil Service Pension Scheme (CSPS) procurement was run in accordance with the Public Contracts Regulations 2015. In accordance with this, strict criteria were applied to the evaluation of all bids submitted. In summary:
All final tender bids submitted were assessed against three criteria, each with an allocated weighting. These areas were Quality (65%), Price (25%) and Social Value (10%).
The Quality aspects of the bid evaluated included: Security, Business Systems, Core Administration, Member & Employer Engagement, Data, Fraud & Finance, Risk & Governance and Transition.
The Social Value aspects of the bid evaluated included: Tackling Economic Inequality, Fighting Climate Change, Equal Opportunity and Wellbeing.
To ensure that the evaluation of all bids was fair, proportionate and met the criteria for best value for money, strict moderation protocols were implemented to ensure that consensus was agreed on the outcomes.
Asked by: Chris Law (Scottish National Party - Dundee West)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, with reference to the Open Government Partnership National Action Plan 2021-23 commitment to explore in greater detail developing a commitment to Aid Transparency, what plans the Government has to publish a timeline for that process.
Answered by Heather Wheeler
As a part of UK membership to the Open Government Partnership, government and civil society work together to develop a National Action Plan every two years. Due to COVID-19 related resource constraints, not all commitment areas identified through the co-creation process could be developed in full, including Aid Transparency. However, as set out in the plan, we will look to explore this theme further as engagement continues into 2022.
If all parties agree to explore this topic following discussion at an upcoming multi-stakeholder forum, a discrete working group will be convened to develop a commitment. A timeline will then be published.
Asked by: Chris Law (Scottish National Party - Dundee West)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, with reference to the Open Government Partnership National Action Plan 2021-23 commitment to explore in greater detail developing a commitment to Aid Transparency, what steps the Government is taking to consult with stakeholders during that process.
Answered by Heather Wheeler
As a part of UK membership to the Open Government Partnership, government and civil society work together to develop a National Action Plan every two years. Due to COVID-19 related resource constraints, not all commitment areas identified through the co-creation process could be developed in full, including Aid Transparency. However, as set out in the plan, we will look to explore this theme further as engagement continues into 2022.
If all parties agree to explore this topic following discussion at an upcoming multi-stakeholder forum, a discrete working group will be convened to develop a commitment. A timeline will then be published.