Teachers Pension Scheme members and receipt of Remediable Service Statements: FOI release

Information requested

I wrote to you in August of this year and asked questions which your team treated as a FOI (Reference: 202500480462).

I would like to ask those questions again and others, that is:

1) how many retired members of the teaching scheme who are due an RSS statement have received theirs; and

2) how may retired members of the teaching scheme who are due an RSS statement have yet to receive theirs?

3) What amount of late payment interest (payable under and in terms of Remedy) has been paid by SPPA in relation to retired members of the teaching scheme?

4) What amount of late payment interest (payable under and in terms of Remedy) has been set aside by the SPPA in relation to the retired members of the teaching scheme?

Please treat this as a FOI request.

Additionally I would be grateful if you would answer the following:

5) Having identified in the SPPA's Audit and Risk Committee Annual Report 2023 - 2024 that “….The Committee has provided scrutiny and challenge through deep dive workshops, direct participation on the Remedy project board and at formal meetings. For some areas evidence of control measures has been provided areas, in others work is underway to document and implement standard processes.”Please provide evidence / documentation as to what control measures were put in place and what work has been undertaken and/or completed to document and implement standard processes in relation to the Remedy project.

6) Given that major risk themes identified by the SPPA Executive Team and reported to the Audit and Risk Committee during the year included “…...Implementation of the 2015 Remedy, Resilience to change at senior leadership level, Financial planning and Budget constraints...” (amongst other things) why was the failure of SPPA to meet expected deadlines not reported in the SPPA's Audit and Risk Committee Annual Report 2024 2025 which was published in July 2025. This is particularly relevant as that SPPA responded to the FOI (see above) that I asked in August 2025 and so it is reasonable to assume that this information could and should have been reported as an event which had occurred rather than a risk. If it was reported elsewhere please may I see a copy of that report?

7) The 2023 – 2024 Audit and Risk Committee Annual Report provided a Summary of Risk Management and Reporting which included Risks, Horizon Scanning, Fraud and Audit and Risk Committee Opinion on Risk Management and Reporting. The 2024 – 2025 Audit and Risk Committee does not provide the same level of detail. I am no expert but can see no reference to Horizon Scanning or Risk Committee Opinion on Risk Management and Reporting, particularly relevant given the ongoing risks presented by challenges in meeting the Remedy Project. Have these been reported elsewhere? If not, why not? Why was Horizon Scanning and Risk Committee Opinion on Risk Management and Reporting removed? They were included in the 2022 - 2023 Report and the 2021 - 2022 Report.

I look forward to hearing from you.

Response

1) As of 17 December 2025, 2,179 retired members of the teaching scheme managed by SPPA who are due an RSS statement had been sent one.

2) As of 17 December 2025, 19,243 retired members of the teaching scheme managed by SPPA who are due an RSS statement had yet to be sent one.

3) As of 17 December 2025, no interest payable due to Remedy had been paid by SPPA in relation to retired members of the teaching scheme managed by SPPA, as none of the few members from this scheme who elected to change their pension option had had their choice processed into payment yet.

4) No amount of late payment interest has been set aside by SPPA but the government will fund any interest payments due as part of Remedy, there is no specific provision for interest but the liability will be presented on the Teachers’ Pension Scheme accounts as part of the overall pension liability. These are not funded schemes.

5) SPPA holds information falling within the scope of your request. However, after careful consideration, we have concluded that this information is exempt from disclosure under section 30(c) of FOISA.

Section 30(c) – Prejudice to effective conduct of public affairs
Section 30(c) provides that information is exempt where disclosure would, or would be likely to,

 prejudice substantially the effective conduct of public affairs.

• The information you have requested includes internal documentation relating to:
• The design and operation of control measures for the Remedy project;
• Internal assessments of process maturity and assurance;

Work that is ongoing to document, refine and embed standard processes.

At the time of your request, elements of this work are still in progress. Disclosure of detailed internal documentation at this stage would be likely to substantially prejudice SPPA’s ability to:

• Manage and remediate identified control gaps effectively;
• Maintain robust and candid internal assurance, scrutiny and challenge arrangements;
• Deliver a complex, high-risk statutory programme in an orderly and controlled manner.

In particular, disclosure would risk presenting an incomplete or misleading picture of the control environment before remediation activity has concluded, which could undermine governance processes and distract from delivery activity while controls are being finalised and embedded.

For these reasons, we consider that the exemption in section 30(c) is engaged.

Public interest test

Section 30(c) is a qualified exemption, and we have therefore considered the public interest.
We recognise that there is a strong public interest in transparency, particularly in relation to:

• The governance of major public service pension programmes; and
• Matters referenced in published Audit and Risk Committee reporting.

However, we consider that this is outweighed, at this time, by the public interest in:

• Ensuring that SPPA can complete assurance and improvement activity in a structured and effective way;
• Protecting the integrity of internal governance and control processes while they are being finalised;
• Supporting the successful delivery of the Remedy project, which has significant implications for members and the wider public interest.

On balance, we have concluded that the public interest lies in withholding the exempt information.

Information otherwise available

High-level information on SPPA’s governance arrangements and the role of the Audit and Risk Committee is available in publicly published committee papers and annual reports on the SPPA website.

6) The Audit and Risk Committee (ARC) report is written by the ARC members so we are unable to state why any item was not included. The ARC is guided by Audit and Assurance committee handbook - gov.scot but has autonomy as to the content of its report.

7) The Audit and Risk Committee (ARC) report is written by the ARC members so we are unable to state why any item was not included. The ARC is guided by Audit and Assurance committee handbook - gov.scot but has autonomy as to the content of its report.

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.