To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland what advice he has received on future public expenditure implications arising from possible shortfalls in public service pension funds. (79972)

The main public sector pension schemes are unfunded or ‘pay as you go’. This is the case for the principal civil service pension scheme (Northern Ireland); the health service superannuation scheme; the fire service superannuation scheme; the police pension scheme and the teachers’ superannuation scheme.

The local government officers’ pension scheme (NI) is a fully funded scheme and any deficit would be met by an increase in contributions from scheme employers.

To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland what recent assessments have been made of the ability of Northern Ireland’s public service pension funds to meet their liabilities. (79973)

All public sector pension schemes are subject to regular actuarial valuation.

The main purposes of the actuarial valuation are:

to assess the value of the liabilities accrued under the scheme up to the valuation date;

to compare the value of the liabilities with the value of the assets deemed to be applicable for assessing funding levels, and

to make a recommendation on the contributions to be paid to scheme participants.

The resource accounts for the schemes are produced in accordance with Treasury guidelines on resource accounting, and contain a report on the scheme liabilities, with the exception of NILGOS, whose accounts are incorporated into their annual report. Copies of the accounts are published and placed in the Library. Library References are included in the following table.

The table shows the date at which the last full actuarial valuation for each of the Northern Ireland public sector pension schemes was carried out and the date at which the next valuation is due.