Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what is the a) target timeframe and b) current timeframe for the Armed Forces Pension Scheme to implement divorce pension-sharing orders.

The statutory period to implement a standard Pension Sharing Order (PSO) is four months. However, the McCloud Remedy has made pension sharing in divorce cases more complex, as the correct valuation depends on a member’s final Remedy choice for service between 2015 and 2022.

While guidance exists for standard PSOs, some older, complex cases require careful handling to ensure legal compliance and avoid errors. As a result, these cases take longer to resolve than standard ones. It is not possible to provide a definitive timeline for complex PSOs, as each case is different.

To ensure fairness, all cases are handled in the order they are received, with prioritisation applied only when legally required. Each case is carefully managed and reviewed to prevent errors and ensure decisions withstand external scrutiny.

The Armed Forces Pension Scheme (AFPS) continues to provide quarterly updates of progress and volumes of Remedy cases completed to date on gov.uk and in the Quarterly Digest.

The next quarterly update will be published on gov.uk at the following link:

https://www.gov.uk/guidance/pensions-and-compensation-for-veterans#remediable-service-statement-delivery-update