Teachers' Superannuation (Scotland) Amendment Regulations 2004<br />(SSI 2004/89)
The Teachers' Superannuation (Scotland) Amendment Regulations 2004 will be dealt with under the negative procedure. We are pleased to welcome David Weir and Christine Marr from the Scottish Public Pensions Agency. The regulations seem to be pretty straightforward, but I invite our witnesses to tell us a little bit more about them.
The regulations will amend the finance section of the regulations that govern teachers' pensions. The amendment will remove the requirement for the Scottish Public Pensions Agency, on behalf of the Scottish ministers, to prepare cash accounts, which relate to the receipts made by the scheme and the payments going out. Cash accounting was superseded a few years ago by the requirement to have resource-based accounts. References to cash accounts are, therefore, redundant and will be removed from the regulations.
Is there any significance in the matter that was identified by the Subordinate Legislation Committee about the sections? I am not sure that I follow its implications.
No. Basically, we have consolidated the regulations but they have not been made yet. The reference that the Subordinate Legislation Committee noted was to the consolidated regulations. Once the consolidated regulations are made, everything will be okay.
Does that make any difference to the effectiveness of these regulations?
No.
Can I ask about the drafting error that was raised? The Subordinate Legislation Committee's paper says:
That is what I have just asked about.
So, has the matter been dealt with?
Yes.
Good.
I understand that the move to resource-based accounting means that cash accounting is no longer required. The obvious question, however, is about how we ensure that there is transparency and accountability in the funds that are available. That is important especially because people are concerned about their pensions and would like to know that money exists that can be paid out.
This year is an important year for pensions. We are bringing in the financial reporting standard 17 requirements, which means that a large non-cash element will be evident in the accounts. That is a fundamental change in reporting. However, the resource accounts will still contain a cash statement. We still collect all the contribution-income cash from the various education bodies, and the report that we submit on a cash basis will still be one of the fundamental statements that support the income and expenditure statements. We will still be fully audited by Audit Scotland every year and there will be no real changes to the accountability procedures.
There is a lot of concern in the United Kingdom about the review of public pensions and about the suggestion that the pensionable age for teachers should rise to 65. Does the amendment to the regulations have any relation to that on-going work?
None at all.
Is everyone content with the regulation?
I thank our witnesses for attending.
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