Scheme Account Summary
These summaries are provided to give a broad picture of the LGPS in England and Wales. They have been aggregated from fund accounts (both audited and unaudited) as available but are not in themselves subject to any form of audit nor are they set out in line with standard accounting practice. Aggregation into the headings shown will by necessity mean some individual fund figures are placed into the nearest equivalent financial heading or asset class. Where no accounts were available at the time of aggregation last year's figures have been repeated for purposes of comparison between years. For source data please see the 2022 fund annual reports.
|
2020-21 £,000s |
2021-22 £,000s |
||
Contributions and Benefits |
|||
|
Contributions and other income |
13,869,841 |
11,584,429 |
|
|
Contributions and Benefit Expenses (see breakdown below) |
(224,286) |
(228,145) |
|
|
Benefits and other payments |
(12,005,276) |
(12,579,730) |
|
|
Net Cashflow in year |
1,640,279 |
(1,223,446) |
|
|
Investment management charges (see breakdown below) |
(1,487,039) |
(1,868,213) |
|
Investments |
|||
|
Investment income |
3,786,119 |
4,598,964 |
|
|
Tax on investment income |
(24,291) |
(29,417) |
|
|
Gains and (losses) on disposal of assets |
61,579,947 |
26,108,833 |
|
|
Net return on investment |
63,854,736 |
28,810,167(2) |
|
|
Assets at start of financial year |
341,947,940 |
341,134,420(3) |
|
|
Increase/(decrease) |
65,523,094 |
27,617,698 |
|
|
Assets at financial year end |
341,947,940(1) |
368,752,719(4) |
Breakdown of management charges
Administration and Governance |
|||
|
Administration |
(151,745) |
(164,413) |
|
|
Oversight and Governance |
(70,816) |
(73,190) |
|
|
Other |
(1,725) |
(9,458) |
|
|
(224,286) |
(228,145) |
||
Investment |
|||
|
Management fees |
(966,946) |
(1,204,697) |
|
|
Performance fees |
(245,886) |
(370,110) |
|
|
Transaction costs |
(175,657) |
(165,044) |
|
|
Custody costs |
(10,178) |
(12,939) |
|
|
Other costs |
(88,372) |
(115,423) |
|
|
(1,487,039) |
(1,868,213)(5) |
Scheme Assets Summary
Investment assets |
|||
|
Public debt (market traded bonds and gilts) |
15,546,853 |
12,329,845 |
|
|
Public equity (market traded stocks and shares) |
45,882,537 |
43,588,165 |
|
|
Pooled debt and equity (market traded units in asset funds) |
242,251,818 |
266,512,967 |
|
|
Property (directly held and units in property funds) |
8,019,574 |
9,498,390 |
|
|
Private markets debt and equity |
12,491,755 |
15,565,161 |
|
|
Derivatives and other financial instruments |
1,074,858 |
1,185,092 |
|
|
Other assets and balances |
8,368,573 |
11,569,761 |
|
|
Cash on deposit |
7,688,587 |
7,531,419 |
|
|
341,324,555 |
367,780,800 |
||
Outstanding items |
623,282 |
971,570 |
|
|
341,947,837(1) |
368,752,216(6) |
(1) Discrepancy due to inconsistencies in rounding between the fund accounts and the net assets statements.
(2) Discrepancy in the accumulation of the fund accounts by 2,505 due to errors in the pension fund accounts of London Boroughs and one County Council.
(3) There were different 2021 closing balances and 2022 opening balances in the accounts used for pension funds from two County Councils and one London Borough.
(4) Discrepancy due to errors in one London Borough's pension accounts and rounding.
(5) Discrepancy due to the recording of management expenses in one County Council differently.
(6) This is the accumulated headline figure as provided by the funds. There is a discrepancy of 154 from the underlying figures due to errors in the pension accounts of one County Council, one London Borough and one Unitary Council, as well as the rounding of figures. There is a discrepancy between the fund account and net asset statement due to an error in one London Borough's accounts as well as the rounding of figures.
Audit status 2021/2022
Please see the fund annual reports 2022 page; as at date of preparation, April 2023, the Scheme Advisory Board secretariat noted that 67 of the 87 audit opinions in respect of pension fund accounts of associated administering authorities remained outstanding. Where audited accounts were not available, draft accounts were available in all but three instances. The audit of these accounts had been completed, but not signed without full authority opinion being given.
Notes
The LGPS Annual Report is based on each individual LGPS funds' statutory annual reports and audited financial statements as at 31 March, these have been collated and published in one place. The intention is to build a complete and comparable set of annual reports for the scheme in its entirety, as a whole and for every fund. The annual accounts have been reviewed to draw out any information which is reported completely and consistently across all funds. At the highest level of financial reporting, the fund financial statements have been gathered together and totalled to produce an aggregated Scheme account and net assets statement.
The Statement of Accounts summarise the Scheme’s transactions for the year and its position at year end as at 31 March. The data used comes from the individual LGPS funds' financial statements which are prepared in accordance with the Code of Practice on Local Authority Accounting in the United Kingdom (The Code). The Code is issued by the Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy, CIPFA and is based on International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS), as amended for the UK public sector. The individual LGPS fund accounts have been prepared on an accruals basis in accordance with the Code, apart from transfer values which are accounted for on a cash basis in accordance with the Code.
The Net Assets Statement similarly summarises the Scheme’s assets over the year and its position at year end as at 31 March.
The individual LGPS fund accounts do not take account of obligations to pay pensions and benefits which fall due after the end of the financial year, nor do they take into account the actuarial present value of promised retirement benefits. IAS 26 gives administering authorities the option to disclose this information by appending an actuarial report, prepared for this purpose. These statements are as at the most recent Scheme valuation date. In the case for 2022 annual reports, this is 31 March 2022.
Data limitations
It is important to note that the data contained in this LGPS Annual Report is based on the individual LGPS fund annual report and audited accounts. The SAB is reliant on the general accuracy of the fund annual reports without independent verification. Whilst the data have been checked for reasonableness and consistency, a full independent audit of the aggregated data has not been completed.
The charts, analysis and general commentary are based on the face accounts, or broad ‘high-level’ figures. Analysis of account notes demonstrated variations in depth of reporting and subjective interpretation of some accounting classifications.
These findings in analysing the more detailed notes sections of the annual reports will be shared with CIPFA and DLUHC in order to support their work in improving guidance on annual report and accounts, and collection of SF3 data. The information may also be used by the LGPS Advisory Board sub committees to help establish baseline datasets and to build on comparable metrics for assessing the financial health of each individual fund, and the scheme as a whole.
