McCloud Remedy case processing information: FOI release

Information requested

1. Copies of any internal policies, guidance, meeting minutes, communications, or briefing notes that relate to the decision-making process on the order of processing cases under the McCloud remedy — particularly why members who retired on ill-health grounds are no longer being prioritised, and now appear to be among the last to have their remedy options processed.

2. The original plan, policy, or communication indicating that ill-health retirees would be among the first to be processed under the McCloud remedy.

3. Details of any changes to that policy, including dates of change and the rationale behind them.

4. Any equality impact assessments or risk assessments carried out in relation to changing the processing order of ill-health retirees.

Response

1. Those in detriment are still prioritised, however all cohorts are being dealt with concurrently given the position in relation to the deadlines. Many ill-health cases require third party information which means these cannot be remedied until all relevant information is available to administrators and involve complex calculations.

While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance the costs of locating, retrieving and providing the information requested would exceed the upper cost limit of £600. There are over 300 documents that would need to be reviewed and redacted manually to provide an accurate response to the information requested. Under section 12 of FOISA public authorities are not required to comply with a request for information if the authority estimates that the cost of complying would exceed the upper cost limit, which is currently set at £600 by Regulations made under section 12.

You may, however, wish to consider reducing the scope of your request in order that the costs can be brought below £600. You may wish to do this by including a shorter time frame in your request or referencing specific documentation, meetings or communications. You may also find it helpful to look at the Scottish Information Commissioner's 'Tips for requesting information under FOI and the EIRs' on his website at: http://www.itspublicknowledge.info/YourRights/Tipsforrequesters.aspx.

2. The original communication indicating that ill-health retirees would be among the first to be processed under the McCloud remedy was posted on the Remedy Hub on 13th September 2023.

Member Hub content:

When we’ll contact you
We're contacting retired members in stages, starting with members who retired because of ill health.
We’ll start writing to members from October 2023, and we’ll contact everyone with a Remediable Service Statement by April 2025.
Don’t worry if you don’t hear from us until later in 2024 or 2025 – you’ll have 12 months from receiving your options to make a choice;
After you make your choice, any change to your payments or tax-free lump sum will be backdated to your retirement date.
If you need help with your retirement planning, you may want to seek help from a professional financial adviser.

3. SPPA approach to prioritisation has not changed. Those members believed to be in detriment are still treated as priority and progressed wherever possible.

4. While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, this is a formal notice under section 17(1) of FOISA that, in this instance the Scottish Public Pensions Agency (SPPA) does not have the information you have requested. The priority has not changed however the processing order is determined by which cohorts we are able to process therefore it is not appropriate or necessary to do an equality impact assessment or risk assessment.

About FOI

The Scottish Government is committed to publishing all information released in response to Freedom of Information requests. View all FOI responses at https://www.gov.scot/foi-responses.