Date posted: 01/02/2009

Audience: This Notice will be of particular interest to:

  • Finance Directors and Managers involved in the preparation of resource accounts

Action:

  • Please give a copy of this document to each member of staff that is involved in the preparation of the remuneration report in your Annual Resource Accounts 2008-09
  • Ensure that they read and understand the whole of this document

And:

  • Send the note at Annex 13D to all senior management who are reported on in departmental remuneration reports. This does not include Ministers
  • Replace chapter 13 of the Employers’ Pension Guide (EPG) with the attached pages

Timing: You must apply this guidance when you prepare the resource accounts for 2008-09. You should discuss timings with your APAC as soon as possible.

The Remuneration Report

  1. Resource accounts must include a ‘Remuneration Report’, which contains information about the pay and pension packages of Ministers and the senior management team1. The Remuneration Report should include information about your remuneration policy and the service contracts. As well as salary and pension information it must also include detailed information about compensation paid to senior management.

Disclosure of salary, pension and compensation information

  1. Salary, pension (including any preserved awards) and compensation information about an individual must be disclosed in remuneration reports, unless the member objects, giving reasons, that publication would prejudice their rights, freedoms or legitimate interests, or that it would or be likely to cause unwarranted substantial damage or distress to themselves or another. If a member raises such an argument they must do so referring to section 10 of the Data Protection Act (DPA). You are strongly advised to take legal advice in such a case, because if you decide not to publish this may be challenged under the Freedom of Information Act. You can also find further details in the Financial Reporting Manual (FReM) paragraph 7.2.26. If the member is successful in arguing that disclosure should not take place, you should not refer to them in the Remuneration Report.
  2. Annex 13D includes a note for you to send to senior management to tell them of the arrangements in relation to disclosure and their right to object under the DPA. It is important that this notice is also issued to any new senior management if they are likely to be included in the Remuneration Report.
  3. Ministerial severance payments are made outside of the CSCS arrangements, and are not covered by this guidance.
  4. As employers, it is your responsibility to ensure that a narrative describing the full implications of any compensation paid out is completed. This will need to include ALL monies paid out to the member both at the time they left and any future payments payable to them as part of the compensation package. See Annex 13C for an example of the narrative. You should explain in a footnote that the cost of the compensation to you as the employer may not be exactly the same as that paid out to the member. An example of what a Remuneration Report might look like can be found at Annex 13C of the EPG. Please note that you should not make changes to the notes explaining pension benefits without the agreement of Civil Service Pensions Division. 1 Please note that references to ‘senior management’ that follow in this EPN are taken to mean members of your most senior management team only (i.e. board members).

Compromise agreements

  1. Where you have a compromise agreement with an individual, which contains a confidentiality clause, information about their compensation is not normally disclosed. However, it is possible for disclosure to take place in exceptional circumstances and with an individual’s express permission. Wherever a compromise agreement exists you should always obtain legal advice.

Forms

  1. The forms found at Annex 13A and 13B of the EPG should be used to request the pensions and compensation information you require for your accounts from your APAC, and the pensions information you require for your accounts from the House of Commons (HoC) Pensions Unit. As last year, there may be a charge for gathering the Ministerial information. You should send your request for the required pension and compensation information to your APAC, and to the HoC pensions unit in respect to Ministers, as soon as possible so that they can ensure they have all the data they need on the individuals concerned. APACs will not be able to start calculations before the APAC has updated the pension records to reflect the March payroll. It is therefore essential that you discuss with your APAC when current figures will be available.
  2. Employers are responsible for identifying the individuals for whom disclosure information is required. Employers must request pension information from their APAC using the Request Form at Annex 13A (DRADISC_CS). On receipt of the Request Form, the APAC should carry out the necessary pension calculations and enter the details in the relevant boxes in the Request Form. The form is then returned to the employer contact for their action.

Salary and Contributions

  1. Annex 13A has been altered this year and requires you to provide more information. You must put in an up to date salary for the member and an accurate figure of the pension contributions (including in respect of added years or added pension) paid by the member during the reporting period. You will have to contact your payroll department who will provide you with this information. Failure to supply this information will delay the calculations required for disclosure. The completed Annex 13A is then sent to the APAC. The APAC will not process your calculations unless the information is sent to them on a fully completed Annex 13A. Once the APAC has received the information it will take them some time to return the completed calculations to you. Please contact your APAC to discuss these timescales. You are responsible for the security of sending the Annex 13A to the APAC so please ensure that you are following your department’s guidelines.

Earnings Cap

  1. If you had any members during the 2007-08 accounting period who were subject to the earnings cap but who had transferred-in service that was not capped, it is possible that the APAC’s calculation was wrong. If this was the case you will have to put a note in the 2008-09 resource accounts correcting the previous year’s error. (See Annex 13C for an example of how this is worked out. APACs have been informed of this issue and will make the calculations for you).

Disclosure of other pension information

  1. You should continue to disclose the information about retirement benefits, required by section 8 of the FReM, as a note to the resource accounts.

Partial Retirement

  1. If any senior management team member has taken partial retirement and is reported on as part of the disclosure exercise then you should refer these to the Civil Service Pensions Division who will work with the APAC on the numbers and with the employer on the (modified) disclosure.

Factors

  1. The factors used in calculating CETVs were updated in October 2008. As a result of this the opening CETV of the 08/09 calculations is likely to be different to the closing CETV from the 07/08 calculations. You should not manually put in the 07/08 closing CETV figures into the opening CETV for 08/09 as this would result in an artificial increase in the 08/09 real increase in CETV. You should put a note into your accounts explaining this difference. See Annex 13C as for an example.

Reasons for Negative Increases to CETVs

  1. There are many reasons that could cause a negative value in the “real increase in CETV” including:

i. If a rise in pensionable salary is less than the rate of inflation;

ii. If someone joined or left mid year;

iii. The pension factors for the over 60s decrease the value of the pension that could have been taken at 60.

Introduction of IFRS Accounting

  1. We believe, after examining the guidance, that the existing advice provided by Cabinet Office relating to the disclosure of salary, pension and compensation information will not change with the introduction of the International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) based accounting.

Reference

This document replaces EPN 210

Contacts:

Enquiries about content, distribution or to receive in a different format

employerhelpdesk@cabinet-office.x.gsi.gov.uk
01256 846414
Employer Helpdesk
Civil Service Pensions
Grosvenor House
Basing View
Basingstoke
RG21 4HG

Attachments

Published:
1 February 2009
Last updated:
24 April 2023