Public Accounts Committee and Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committee

8 July 2026

Contents updated on 8 Jul 2026

Initial hearing evidence from ministers and officials defines the inquiry’s remit, quantifies backlogs and emergency interventions, examines member impacts and Capita’s performance and sanctions, and reviews contract default status, termination options, market constraints and Cabinet Office surge support capability.

Committee Wed, 8 Jul 2026 Actual start 12:30 House of Commons

20:05 - 22:10

Speaker 1

Order, order. Welcome to this joint session of the Public Accounts Committee and the Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committee on Wednesday the 8th of July 2026. I'd like to thank my fellow chair Simon Hoare for his committee's collaboration with us on this important matter of the ongoing failures of the Civil Service Pension Scheme. So before we start, I want to make clear that both committees sitting here agree with the Minister that the levels of service and experiences for members of the pension scheme over the past seven months since the transition of provider to Capita have been entirely unacceptable. We also recognize that the Cabinet Office is responsible for the ongoing issues with the scheme, many of which predate the transition to this provider.

As you will no doubt be aware, this is a very distressing matter for many individuals, and we know that from our postbag, all members of Parliament know that. I know from my fellow committee members of the PAC and PACAC regularly hear from retired scheme members who have been left struggling to make ends meet at a pivotal point in their life, causing them significant distress and anxiety. I'd like sincerely to thank every individual who has taken the time to write the committees to the committees on this issue, and indeed all of the staff who've had a really heavy workload in the last few days. It's much appreciated, everybody who's helped with this hearing. So this afternoon we want to hear what responsibility government has for this mess, how the minister and Cabinet Office officials are holding Capita accountable for its service failures, how it is supporting affected individuals, and finally, what consideration is giving to insourcing this vital service.

So, I think what I'm going to do is my normal practice and ask everybody, minister, to introduce themselves, and that would be really helpful if we could start with you, please, Nick.

So, Nick Thomas-Symonds, I'm the Paymaster General.

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