§ Ms MowlamTo ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland what was the reasons for the reclassification of civil service pensions; and if the £17 million spent on doing this will be a one-off expense.
§ Sir John WheelerThe reclassification of civil service pensions arose from the decision to allocate accruing superannuation liability charges to departments' budgets with effect from the 1994–95 financial year. This was designed to make the employment costs of staff more transparent. The reclassification was a technical adjustment which has been applied throughout the United Kingdom and which had no implications for the resources available to Northern Ireland.