The civil service’s biggest union will demand a public inquiry into the process which saw Capita win the contract to administer the Civil Service Pension Scheme.
Delegates at PCS’s annual conference yesterday backed a motion asking the union’s leadership to call for a public probe into the Civil Service Pension Scheme outsourcing process.
The motion also commits the union to campaign for a “strengthened statutory and contractual framework for all critical payment and pension services”.
Delegates also voted for a motion asking the union’s leaders to “urgently seek a meeting with the minister for the Cabinet Office to demand insourcing” of the civil service pensions contract.
During the debate, Angela Grant, PCS’s DWP Group president, told the conference that following PCS’s last meeting with the Cabinet Office, the union has “little faith” in Capita meeting its deadline to reach full contractual compliance by the end of June.
“We are writing to the paymaster general calling on him to take the same steps as he took with the Royal Mail and to cancel the civil service pensions contract,” she said.
Giving an opening address on the conference's first day, general secretary Fran Heathcote noted that Labour had promised the “biggest wave of insourcing in a generation”, and said this had barely yet registered as even a “ripple”.
“Instead, we have seen civil service pensions given to Capita – and it’s a shambles,” she said. “But despite that, the government is now in the process of giving Capita the contract for managing the payroll of 250,000 civil servants. What could possibly go wrong?”
A Cabinet Office spokesperson said: "The service levels following the move to Capita have been unacceptable. An urgent recovery plan is underway, and our immediate priority is to stabilise the service and give current and former civil servants the service they deserve.
"The Cabinet Office will continue to use all available commercial levers to hold Capita to account and ensure they deliver for both members and taxpayers."