Asked by: Dave Doogan (Scottish National Party - Angus and Perthshire Glens)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, how many additional staff have been deployed to clear the administrative backlog in relation to the Civil Service Pension Scheme; when the full complement of additional staff will be in place; and when the backlog will be cleared.
Answered by Satvir Kaur - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
The Cabinet Office awarded Capita the contract to administer the Civil Service Pension Scheme in November 2023 under the previous government. The current delays facing scheme members are entirely unacceptable, and this Government has taken firm action to resolve them through a clear recovery plan with strict delivery milestones. We have deployed additional resources to expedite priority cases, ensuring that serving and former staff receive the high standard of service they deserve. Regular progress updates remain available to members via the pension portal and Gov.uk.
Capita is under a firm mandate to restore full service delivery to standard contractual levels by the end of June 2026. We are actively exploring the use of all available commercial and contractual levers and continue to withhold milestone payments for missed transition deliverables. All options remain on the table if they fail to meet the June deadline.
A dedicated 140-person government surge team was deployed to clear the 15,000 inherited unread emails and stabilise operations. This support will remain in place until Cabinet Office are satisfied service levels have been restored, with an expectation of Capita picking up the cost (to be part of the post-recovery contractual settlement).
The Cabinet Office maintains a rigorous oversight of the Civil Service Pension Scheme and has addressed Capita’s data protection failure that occurred on 30 March 2026. This incident involved a session management and document generation failure on the member portal, which enabled 138 members to view the benefit statements of other individuals. Internal investigations established that this was a technical malfunction rather than a cyber-attack, following a specific technical deployment.
Following this discovery, the Cabinet Office notified the Information Commissioner’s Office and oversaw a full root cause analysis conducted by Capita. In addition to strengthening technical controls to prevent a recurrence, the Cabinet Office mandated that Capita provide formal accounts of the incident to the Public Accounts Committee and the Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committee. These measures ensure that the causes of the failure are fully understood and that Capita remains accountable for the security of member information.
Regular updates on the work to recover the service, continue to be posted on the Civil Service Pensions member portal and on Gov.Uk.
Asked by: Dave Doogan (Scottish National Party - Angus and Perthshire Glens)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what steps he is taking in response to the recent leak of Civil Service Pension Scheme members Annual Benefit Statements.
Answered by Satvir Kaur - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
The Cabinet Office awarded Capita the contract to administer the Civil Service Pension Scheme in November 2023 under the previous government. The current delays facing scheme members are entirely unacceptable, and this Government has taken firm action to resolve them through a clear recovery plan with strict delivery milestones. We have deployed additional resources to expedite priority cases, ensuring that serving and former staff receive the high standard of service they deserve. Regular progress updates remain available to members via the pension portal and Gov.uk.
Capita is under a firm mandate to restore full service delivery to standard contractual levels by the end of June 2026. We are actively exploring the use of all available commercial and contractual levers and continue to withhold milestone payments for missed transition deliverables. All options remain on the table if they fail to meet the June deadline.
A dedicated 140-person government surge team was deployed to clear the 15,000 inherited unread emails and stabilise operations. This support will remain in place until Cabinet Office are satisfied service levels have been restored, with an expectation of Capita picking up the cost (to be part of the post-recovery contractual settlement).
The Cabinet Office maintains a rigorous oversight of the Civil Service Pension Scheme and has addressed Capita’s data protection failure that occurred on 30 March 2026. This incident involved a session management and document generation failure on the member portal, which enabled 138 members to view the benefit statements of other individuals. Internal investigations established that this was a technical malfunction rather than a cyber-attack, following a specific technical deployment.
Following this discovery, the Cabinet Office notified the Information Commissioner’s Office and oversaw a full root cause analysis conducted by Capita. In addition to strengthening technical controls to prevent a recurrence, the Cabinet Office mandated that Capita provide formal accounts of the incident to the Public Accounts Committee and the Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committee. These measures ensure that the causes of the failure are fully understood and that Capita remains accountable for the security of member information.
Regular updates on the work to recover the service, continue to be posted on the Civil Service Pensions member portal and on Gov.Uk.
Asked by: Dave Doogan (Scottish National Party - Angus and Perthshire Glens)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, when he plans to respond to the enquiry from the hon. Member for Angus and Perthshire Glens, reference DD21808, submitted on 21/01/2026 on MyCSP service.
Answered by Satvir Kaur - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
I can confirm that your letter to the Prime Minister, dated 21 January 2026, has been passed to me as the Minister responsible for this policy, and I have replied to your letter. Please accept my apologies for the delay. The Government is committed to transparency and accountability, including through clear and timely responses to correspondence.
Asked by: Dave Doogan (Scottish National Party - Angus and Perthshire Glens)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, with reference to Written Question UIN 77563, answered on the 13 October 2025, what steps he is taking with Cabinet colleagues to ensure that Ministers are adequately briefed when they present to Parliament.
Answered by Nick Thomas-Symonds
Ministerial briefings are a matter for individual departments. There are a number of resources available to ministers to assist in preparing for parliamentary activity: the Ministerial Code has expectations for Ministers in Parliament, the Cabinet Office Parliamentary Capability Team offers training for Ministers and officials, and the Guide to Parliamentary Work provides broader guidance for officials on working with Parliament.
Asked by: Dave Doogan (Scottish National Party - Angus and Perthshire Glens)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, if he will immediately release the vetting advice the Prime Minister received prior to the appointment of Matthew Doyle to the House of Lords.
Answered by Nick Thomas-Symonds
As a matter of policy, the Government does not publish information relating to individuals' peerage nominations.
Asked by: Dave Doogan (Scottish National Party - Angus and Perthshire Glens)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, with reference to the Prime Minister's oral contribution in response to the hon. Member for Glasgow South West during Prime Minister's Questions on 3 September 2025, Official Report, column 291, what his evidential basis is for the statement that the First Minister has not welcomed the deal.
Answered by Nick Thomas-Symonds
I refer the Hon Member to the Prime Minister's words on 3 September 2025, Official Report, column 291.
Asked by: Dave Doogan (Scottish National Party - Angus and Perthshire Glens)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, whether he plans to extend his definition of national security to include (a) airport infrastructure, (b) broadband, (c) food, (d) energy and water infrastructure and (e) climate security.
Answered by Abena Oppong-Asare
The National Security Strategy 2025, published on 24 June, sets out the UK’s approach to national security. It states that we will enhance the resilience of our critical national infrastructure, as well as how we continue to address the challenges of a changing climate. The definition of national security used by the Government is necessarily broad to ensure an appropriate response to the evolving threats faced by the British people.
Asked by: Dave Doogan (Scottish National Party - Angus and Perthshire Glens)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what discussions he has had with the devolved Administrations on the format of payments from the infected blood compensation scheme; whether he has had discussions with each devolved Administration on their presumed approach in terms of lump-sum versus monthly payments; and what assessment his Department has made of each devolved Administration's presumed approach.
Answered by Nick Thomas-Symonds
I met the Health Ministers for England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland ahead of the announcement on 16 August, and officials meet on a regular basis to discuss the progress of the Infected Blood Compensation Scheme. The Scheme will operate across the UK and the Infected Blood Compensation Authority has been set up to deliver compensation payments to people infected and affected, and will work across the whole country as a single point administering compensation. We are committed to working closely with devolved governments and their support scheme administrators as we move forward with this work.
Asked by: Dave Doogan (Scottish National Party - Angus and Perthshire Glens)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what the cost of the Emergency Alerts system is.
Answered by John Glen
The total cost to date of developing the technical architecture and systems that underpin the emergency alert capability, in addition to the first three years of operational delivery, will be a maximum of £25.3 million.
Asked by: Dave Doogan (Scottish National Party - Angus and Perthshire Glens)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, pursuant to the Answer of 3 July 2023 to Question 191383 on Veterans: LGBT+ People, when he plans to publish the findings of the LGBT Veterans Independent Review.
Answered by Johnny Mercer
The Office for Veterans’ Affairs and Ministry of Defence jointly commissioned an independent review to better understand the impacts and implications of the pre-2000 policy relating to LGBT people serving in HM Armed Forces.
Lord Etherton has concluded this work and submitted his report to the Government.
We are carefully considering the findings and, in line with the review’s terms of reference, shall publish the report and an initial Government response in due course.