The Local Government Pension Scheme (Scotland) Regulations 2014

Actuarial valuations of pension funds

60.—(1) An administering authority must obtain—

(a) an actuarial valuation of the assets and liabilities of each of its pension funds as at 31st March 2017 and on 31st March in every third year afterwards;

(b) a report by an actuary in respect of the valuation; and

(c) a rates and adjustments certificate prepared by an actuary.

(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 Scottish Ministers may agree.

(3) A report under paragraph (1)(b) must contain a statement of the demographic assumptions used in making the valuation; and the statement must show how the assumptions relate to the events which have actually occurred in relation to members of the Scheme since the last valuation.

(4) A rates and adjustments certificate is a certificate specifying—

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

(b) the secondary rate of the employer’s contribution,

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

(5) The primary rate of an employer’s contribution is the amount in respect of the cost of future accruals which, in the actuary’s opinion, should be paid to a 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.

(6) The actuary must have regard to—

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

(b) the desirability of maintaining as nearly constant a common rate as possible;

(c) the current version of the administering authority’s funding strategy mentioned in regulation 56 (funding strategy statements); and

(d) the requirement to secure the solvency of the pension fund and the long term cost efficiency of the Scheme, so far as relating to the pension fund.

(7) The secondary rate of an employer’s contributions is any percentage or amount by which, in the actuary’s opinion, contributions at the primary rate should, in the case of a Scheme employer, be increased or reduced by reason of any circumstances peculiar to that employer.

(8) A rates and adjustments certificate must contain a statement of the assumptions on which the certificate is given as respects—

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

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

during the period covered by the certificate.

(9) The administering authority must provide the actuary preparing a valuation or a rates and adjustments certificate with the consolidated revenue account of the fund and such other information as the actuary requests.