Written question asked by Jim Cousins (Labour) on Tuesday, 12 December 2006, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Tuesday, 19 December 2006. It was answered by Phil Woolas (Labour) on Tuesday, 19 December 2006 on behalf of the Department for Communities and Local Government.

Local Government Pension Scheme

Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government which sectors of employment are covered by the Local Government Pension Scheme; what the membership of the scheme is in each sector; what estimate she has made of the average length of service in the scheme in each sector; and what estimate she has made of the proportion of total employment in each sector that scheme membership represents.

Answer: Membership of the Local Government Pension Scheme covers a number of different employment sectors including all local authority staff, non-operational staff in the police and firelighters’ sectors and non-teaching staff in the education sector. Non-local authority sectors that participate in the scheme include, for example, voluntary bodies, charities, housing bodies and private sector companies delivering local authority type services under contract.Specific information about the number of scheme members in each of these sectors; the average length of service in each sector and the proportion of the total employment they represent, is not held centrally. However, data which are available indicate that about one fifth of the 1.6 million active members of the LGPS are employed in the non-local government sector. Individual Local Government Pension Scheme administering authorities will have the membership details within each of the sectors requested.

Secondary information