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Police: Pensions

Answer

Information on the total cost of police pensions as a share of police spending since 1990-91 is not held centrally as the administration of the police pension schemes is the responsibility of individual police authorities. Information on financial statistics, including expenditure on police pensions and overall spending, for police forces is included in the annual reports published by the Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy (CIPFA). This information is gathered independently of the Home Office.The following figures are the most recently published projections of total future expenditure on police pensions in England and Wales, net of the contributions made by serving officers. These were produced by the Government Actuary's Department (GAD) as part of the consultation process on the new system for funding police pensions in 2005. GAD advise that in view of the time elapsed since the figures were produced they should be viewed only as indicative of the likely future trend of police pensions expenditure. No projections are available for 2013-14 to 2020-21:

Financial year	Estimated pensions expenditure (£ billion)
2007-08	1.61
2008-09	1.74
2009-10	1.88
2010-11	2.00
2011-12	2.12
2012-13	2.25

Police spending is based on government grants on which no decisions have yet been taken for the comprehensive spending review (CSR) years and on police precept which is a matter for local authorities. Information on projected police spending for 2007-08 is included in the annual reports published by CIPFA.The system for financing police pensions changed on 1 April 2006. Under the new system, police authorities no longer have to meet the cost of pensions in payment out of their operating accounts. Police authorities now have a separate pensions account for this purpose, into which are paid officers' contributions and a new employer's contribution. Where the pensions account does not have enough funds to meet the cost of pensions in any year it is topped up with a grant from central Government; any surplus is recouped. A key benefit of this change is that it takes away from police authorities the responsibility for meeting the rising cost of pensions in payment as a result of an increase in the number of pensioners.

Secondary information

Type

Written question

Reference

144276; 462 c319-21W

Session

2006-07

Subjects

Police Pensions

Link

View this Written question on www.publications.parliament.uk