§ Mr. HealdTo ask the Secretary of State for Defence if he will list the(a) funded and (b) unfunded public sector pension schemes for which his Department, its agencies and its non-departmental public bodies are responsible; when the last actuarial valuation was of each scheme; what the value was of the assets at the last actuarial valuation of each scheme; what deficit is disclosed by the last actuarial valuation of each scheme; and if he will make a statement. [104924]
§ Dr. MoonieWith one exception the Ministry of Defence, its agencies and non-departmental public bodies are not responsible for any funded pension schemes. The schemes for the three Armed Forces Sports Boards are unfunded schemes that are analogous to the Principal Civil Service Pension Scheme and are paid for by grant-in-aide and non-public funds. As such they have no assets and are not subject to actuarial valuation.
Of the seven executive non-departmental public bodies listed in "Public Bodies 2002", the National Army Museum scheme is analogous to the Principal Civil Service Pension Scheme and is paid for through grant-in-aid. It has no assets and is not subject to actuarial valuation. The Royal Naval Museum, the Royal Naval Submarine Museum and the Fleet Air Arm Museum have privately provided money purchase schemes. Again, the schemes have no assets and are not subject to actuarial valuation. The RAF Museum supports a money purchase stakeholder pension to which it does not contribute and there is no designated pension scheme for the Royal Marines Museum. The one funded scheme is run by the Oil and Pipelines Agency. The last actuarial valuation of the scheme was 5 April 2001 at which the value of the assets was £2.11 million. The funding surplus at the last valuation was f£0.468 million.
MOD is also responsible for unfunded schemes for locally engaged staff in Gibraltar, Cyprus and St. Helena. These schemes have no assets and are not subject to actuarial valuation, being funded locally through operating costs.
The Armed Forces Pension Scheme is an unfunded, salary-related contracted-out occupational pension scheme open to most members of the armed forces. There is also a scheme for Non-Regular Permanent Staff and the Army Careers Officers Pension Scheme. The latter two are minor schemes incorporated with the Armed Forces Pension Scheme for actuarial and Resource Accounting purposes, whose membership amounted to some 0.54 per cent. of the overall Armed Forces Pension Scheme as at 31 Mar 2002.
The last actuarial statement for the Armed Forces Pension Scheme was produced by the Government Actuary's Department for the year ending 31 March 20021, and was included as part of the Armed Forces Pension Scheme Resource Accounts 2001–02 which are laid before Parliament. As at 31 March 2002, the value of liabilities for the Armed Forces Pension Scheme was 740W £53.5 billion. The next full valuation is currently in progress and will be included in the Armed Forces Pension Scheme Resource Accounts for 2002–03.
1 Based on an approximate assessment carried out as at 31 March 1997, updated to reflect known changes that had occurred since that date.