Asked by: Sarah Smith (Labour - Hyndburn)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, whether he has made an assessment of the potential merits of an equitable mobility arrangement, separate to the Freedom of Movement arrangement, between the UK and the EU.
Answered by Nick Thomas-Symonds
This Government is committed to ensuring opportunities for young British citizens to live, work, study, and travel across the European Union. That is why at the 2025 UK-EU Summit, we agreed to negotiate a balanced youth experience scheme with the EU, providing an invaluable form of cultural exchange. We have agreed that any scheme will be capped, subject to a visa requirement, as well as time-limited, ensuring any impact of the scheme is controlled. This will give young people the opportunity to travel, work and study overseas. The exact parameters of the scheme are subject to ongoing negotiations.
Asked by: Sarah Smith (Labour - Hyndburn)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what steps he is taking to reduce delays and service issues with the Civil Service Pension Scheme.
Answered by Satvir Kaur - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
The administration of the Civil Service Pension Scheme is the responsibility of the Cabinet 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.
We are making Capita work to restore, to contractual levels, administration of the Civil Service Pension Scheme following its failed transition in December last year. Capita committed to restoring the service by the end of June. The Government is now undertaking a comprehensive assessment of the latest data provided by Capita post the end of June commitment.
We remain committed to holding Capita accountable. Should underperformance occur and the agreed firm end of June deadline not be met, the Government will not hesitate to take firm action, all commercial levers will be used and all options will be considered.
A dedicated 140-person government surge team was deployed to clear the 15,000 inherited unread emails and stabilise operations. Government has been clear that this support will remain in place until they 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).