Stephen Boyle

The Auditor General for Scotland today published a new report which raises concerns about the SPPA’s work to deliver pensions “remedy” calculations to members of police, fire, NHS and teachers’ pension schemes.

This work arises from the 2018 McCloud judgement on age discrimination within the UK’s 2015 pension reforms.

The SPPA did not meet a 1 April 2025 statutory deadline, meaning more than 50,000 retired scheme members were left waiting to hear if they are due higher pension payments.

Today’s report warns that overly ambitious revised targets created an impression of progress to scheme members that did not fully account for the scale and complexity of the work involved.

As of November 2025, the SPPA had issued statements to 55 per cent of scheme members – 108,506 of 196,316 eligible members. This includes active and deferred members, as well as retirees. Of those retirees, 51,802 out of 68,239 members had not received a remedy pension statement.

The SPPA is now working towards a revised deadline of 31 July 2028.

However, the report warns progress remains slow and it remains unclear if the SPPA will meet its revised timescales. Auditors also reported wider concerns about the governance and transparency of the agency.

Stephen Boyle, Auditor General for Scotland, said: “I’m concerned about the SPPA’s capacity to deliver outstanding remedy statements by the extended timescales.

“The impact of ongoing delays is of significant concern to many scheme members,particularly current pensioners and those close to retirement.

“The SPPA needs to provide greater transparency on its progress and take action to address other issues regarding governance and transparency raised by the auditor.”

A spokesperson for the SPPA said: “We welcome Audit Scotland’s unqualified opinion on our accounts and its audit recommendations.

“The SPPA continues to work constructively with Audit Scotland and is already taking action to address areas for improvement.

“We have robust governance arrangements in place, with oversight from our management advisory board and audit and risk committee, as well as scheme-specific pension and advisory boards to support us to deliver for our members.

“Delivering the McCloud remedy to the approximately 215,000 members who are eligible is our key priority, alongside continuing to effectively administer pensions for over 600,000 teachers, police, firefighters’ and NHS employees in Scotland.

“Like other public sector pension administrators across the UK, it is taking longer than expected for us to complete this work because the UK government’s original statutory timelines were overly ambitious and underestimated the scale and complexity of task.

“While retired members will already be receiving the pension they are entitled to under the rules at the time they retired, we appreciate that the choice provided by the McCloud remedy will make a difference to some.

“Our chief executive has apologised to members who have been affected by the delay. Dr Pathirana attended the Scottish Parliament’s Finance and Public Administration Committee in December to discuss progress in delivering remedy in detail and will provide a further written update before appearing again in March to provide a further update.

“The SPPA is in regular contact with members, employers, employer organisations, unions, the Pension Boards, and the Pensions Regulator to ensure all are kept up to date on progress.

“We are regularly updating members through direct communications and newsletters, and via the dedicated Remedy pages on the SPPA website and will continue to do so until we have issued all remediable service statements.”