Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, how many bereavement cases being administered by Capita are currently more than (a) 30, (b) 60, (c) 100 and (d) 150 days old.

There are currently 20,897 outstanding retirement quotations, representing 18,615 unique members. Individual members may have multiple records where they have separate periods of pensionable service or duplicate requests under review. Complete and reliable retirement date information is not held across all outstanding cases; determining how many members have passed their intended retirement date would require a manual case-by-case review.

The age breakdown of outstanding bereavement cases being administered by Capita is as follows:

• (a) 31 to 60 days old: 7,781

• (b) 61 to 100 days old: 2,705

• (c) 101 to 150 days old: 2,792

• (d) More than 150 days old: 1,107

(Note: Cumulatively, this equates to 14,385 cases over 30 days old; 6,604 cases over 60 days old; and 3,899 cases over 100 days old).

Current service levels are unacceptable, and the Government is taking robust action to hold Capita to account. This includes withholding £9.9 million in contract payments for undelivered milestones, alongside confirmation that the Government surge team costs will be recovered directly from Capita.