UNITE demanded an urgent reversal to the government’s outsourcing of Civil Service pension funds to private firms today following a data breach by Capita.

The union took aim at Labour for failing to make good on its manifesto promise to bring public-sector retirement funds in-house, after members of the Civil Service Pension Scheme (CSPS) received personal information belonging to other members last month in the breach.

Unite national officer Dominic Hook said this was not the first time that Capita, which administers the CSPS, has proven it is unable to properly handle workers’ retirement funds.

Mr Hook said: “This latest in a litany of extremely serious failures by Capita shows why the government’s manifesto promise to reverse outsourcing is more important than ever.

“Once again, Capita has proved itself to be totally unfit to manage the pensions of millions of public-sector workers.

“Ministers need to keep that promise by bringing the CSPS back in-house.”

Capita said that 138 scheme members either received data relating to other members’ annual benefit statements or had their data seen by others.

The Cabinet Office previously said it was “aware of the incident” and took “the issue extremely seriously.”

A spokesperson said: “While only a very small number of members were affected, we are working with Capita to establish the facts and ensure appropriate measures are taken. We will consider further action as required.”

Capita said it has contacted all of those who have been affected by the breach and has committed to provide normal service levels by the end of June.

In its apology for the breach, Capita said it was taking the “protection of members’ personal data extremely seriously.”