Source · Select Committees · Housing, Communities and Local Government Committee
Recommendation 27
27
Deferred
Paragraph: 120
Introduce legislation to decouple local authority accounts from Pension Fund statements
Recommendation
Local authority accounts are currently required by legislation to include Pension Fund statements, but this has made the accounts longer, more complicated, and less useful to users. The Government should introduce legislation to decouple local authority accounts from these Pension Fund statements, which should be published as separate documents.
Government Response Summary
The government commits to considering the recommendation to decouple local authority accounts from pension fund statements as part of a broader review of legislation it has already committed to undertake.
Paragraph Reference:
120
Government Response
Deferred
HM Government
Deferred
We will consider the Committee’s recommendation as part of the review of legislation we have committed to undertake in response to Recommendation 8. There are 86 authorities, mainly county councils and London boroughs, which are responsible for individual Local Government Pension Scheme (LGPS) funds. Under s20(3) of the Local Audit and Accountability Act 2014 the annual statement of accounts for these authorities includes the pension fund account and the authority’s local auditor must give a separate opinion on the part of the statement that relates to the accounts of the pension fund. We recognise that these requirements make the main accounts longer and more complicated and will consider the case for separation of the two sets of accounts.