Local Government Pension Scheme Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2002

Pension fund

The fund

75.  The Committee is responsible for maintaining the fund.

Accounts and audit

76.—(1) The Committee shall keep accounts of all financial transactions of the fund.

(2) The Secretary of the Committee shall prepare the financial statements for the financial year ended 31st March 2003 and subsequent financial years in accordance with paragraph (3) and shall forward three copies of the financial statements duly signed and dated by him to the Department not later than 30th June after the expiration of the financial year to which the financial statements relate.

(3) The financial statements shall comprise –

(a) a Foreword;

(b) a Statement of the Committee’s Responsibilities;

(c) an Accounting Officer’s Statement;

(d) a Fund Account;

(e) a Net Assets Statement; and

shall contain the information specified in Part IV of Schedule 6.

(4) The financial statements shall give a true and fair view of the Fund Account for the financial year, and the Net Assets Statement as at the end of the financial year.

(5) The financial statements kept by the Committee shall be audited annually by a local government auditor who shall report on the financial statements audited and shall send his report, together with two audited copies of the financial statements duly signed and dated by him, to the Department within 14 days after completion of the audit.

(6) The Department on receipt of the local government auditor’s report and the audited copies of the financial statements shall send a copy of such report and financial statements to the Secretary of the Committee who shall –

(a) lay such copy of the report and financial statements before the next meeting of the Committee; and

(b) forward a copy of such report and financial statements to each employing authority.

(7) The local government auditor may require –

(a) the production before him of all documents and financial records of the Committee which he thinks necessary for the purpose of the audit ;

(b) any person holding or accountable for any such documents or financial records to appear before him at the audit or any adjournment thereof ; and

(c) any such person to make and sign a declaration as to the correctness of the documents or financial records.

(8) The Committee shall annually at such time as the Department may direct make to it a report of its proceedings during the preceding year, and the Department shall lay a copy of such report before the Assembly.

Actuarial valuations and certificates

77.—(1) The Committee must obtain –

(a) an actuarial valuation of the assets and liabilities of the fund as at 31st March 2004 and in every third year afterwards;

(b) a report by an actuary; and

(c) a rates and adjustments certificate.

(2) Each of those documents must be obtained before the first anniversary of the date (“the valuation date”) as at which the valuation is made or such later date as the Department may agree.

(3) A rates and adjustments certificate is a certificate specifying –

(a) the common rate of employer’s contribution; and

(b) any individual adjustments,

for each year of the period of three years beginning with 1st April in the year following that in which the valuation date falls.

(4) The common rate of employer’s contribution is the amount which in the actuary’s opinion should be paid to the fund by all bodies whose employees contribute to it so as to secure its solvency, expressed as a percentage of the pay of their employees who are active members.

(5) The actuary must have regard –

(a) to the existing and prospective liabilities of the fund arising from circumstances common to all those bodies; and

(b) to the desirability of maintaining as nearly constant a rate as possible.

(6) An individual adjustment is any percentage or amount by which in the actuary’s opinion contributions at the common rate should in the case of a particular body be increased or reduced by reason of any circumstances peculiar to that body.

(7) A rates and adjustments certificate must contain a statement as to the assumptions on which the certificate is given as respects –

(a) the number of members who will become entitled to payment of pensions under provisions of the Scheme; and

(b) the amount of the liabilities arising in respect of such members,

during the period covered by the certificate.

(8) A report under paragraph (1)(b) must contain a statement as to the demographic assumptions used in making the valuation, showing how they relate to the events which have actually occurred in relation to members of the Scheme since the last valuation.

(9) The Committee must provide the actuary preparing a valuation or a rates and adjustment certificate with the consolidated final accounts of the fund and such other information as he requests.

(10) The Committee must send copies of any valuation, report or certificate under this regulation or revision under regulation 78 –

(a) to the Department;

(b) to each body with employees who contribute to the fund in question; and

(c) to any other body which is or may become liable to make payments to that fund.

(11) The Committee must also send to the Department –

(a) a copy of the consolidated final accounts with which the actuary was provided under paragraph (9); and

(b) a summary of the assets of the fund at the valuation date (unless such a summary is contained in the report).

Special circumstances where revised actuarial valuations and certificates must be obtained

78.—(1) Where an admission agreement ceases to have effect, the Committee must obtain –

(a) an actuarial valuation as at the date on which that agreement ceases to have effect, of the liabilities of the fund in respect of current and former employees of the admission body which is a party to that admission agreement (the outgoing admission body); and

(b) a revision of the certificate provided under regulation 77(3), showing the revised contributions due from the outgoing admission body.

(2) Where it is not possible for any reason to obtain the revised contributions from the outgoing admission body or from an insurer or any person providing a guarantee or indemnity on behalf of that admission body, the Committee may obtain a further revision of any rates and adjustment certificate for the fund, showing –

(a) in the case where the outgoing body is a transferee admission body, the revised contributions due from the body which is the transferor Scheme employer in relation to that outgoing admission body; and

(b) in any other case, the revised contributions due from each employing authority which contributes to the fund.

(3) The Committee may obtain from an actuary a certificate specifying, in the case of an admission body, the percentage or amount by which, in the actuary’s opinion, –

(a) the contribution at the common rate should be adjusted; or

(b) any prior individual adjustment should be increased or reduced,

with a view to providing that the value of the assets of the fund in respect of current and former employees of that admission body is neither materially more nor materially less than the anticipated liabilities of the fund in respect of those employees at the date that the admission agreement is to end.

(4) This paragraph applies where –

(a) the Committee agrees with an employing authority under regulation 54(6)(a) that the employing authority will pay increased contributions under regulation 79; or

(b) it appears to the Committee that the amount of the liabilities arising or likely to arise in respect of members in employment with an employing authority exceeds the amount specified in, or likely as a result of, the assumptions stated for that authority in a rates and adjustments certificate by virtue of regulation 77(7).

(5) Where paragraph (4) applies, the Committee must obtain a revision of the rates and adjustments certificate affected, showing the resulting changes as respects that employing authority.

(6) In this regulation “transferee admission body” and “transferor scheme employer” have the same respective meanings as in regulation 4(16).