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7 Nov 2006 : Column 1395W—continued
Mr. Laws: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department (1) what the (a) present and (b) future retirement age arrangements are for each public sector pension scheme for which his Department has responsibility; and if he will make a statement; [96028]
(2) what the current (a) accrual rate and (b) normal retirement age is for each public sector pension scheme for which his Department is responsible; and if he will make a statement. [96036]
Mr. McNulty: Under the Police Pension Scheme 1987, to which most officers belong, there is no fixed retirement age for the police. Officers with at least 25 years' service may retire with an immediate pension from age 50. Officers may also retire with an immediate pension, irrespective of age, after 30 years' service, when they will have accrued maximum benefits. This means that an officer who joined at age 18Â1/2—the earliest age at which it is possible to start as a police officer—is entitled to retire at age 48Â1/2 with a full pension. Otherwise officers become eligible to retire with an immediate pension from the age of 55, 57 or 60 depending on what their compulsory retirement age would have been for their rank and force before such ages were revised with effect from 1 October this year. Officers with less than 25 years' service who leave the police with deferred benefits will receive their pension at age 60.
The accrual rate under the Police Pension Scheme 1987 is one sixtieth of final salary for each year during the first twenty years and two sixtieths for each of the next 10 years, providing a target pension of two thirds of final salary, if no lump sum is taken, after 30 years.
Members of the Police Pension Scheme 2006, which applies to those who have joined the police service on or after 6 April this year, have a set pension age of 55 at or after which a serving officer can leave with an immediate pension irrespective of his or her length of service. Officers who leave the police service below the age of 55 with deferred benefits will receive their pension at age 65.
The accrual rate under the Police Pension Scheme 2006 is one seventieth of final salary for each year providing a target pension of one half of final salary, plus a fixed lump sum of twice final salary, after 35 years.
Mr. Laws: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what savings estimate he has made of the effect on costs of the reforms to public sector pensions agreed with trades unions in 2005 for each year between 2006-07 and 2050-51; and if he will make a statement. [96037]
Mr. Byrne: I refer the hon. Member to the answer given to him by my right hon. Friend the Chief Secretary to the Treasury on 31 October 2006, Official Report, column 317W.
Mr. Laws:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what the current estimate is of the unfunded liability, in present value terms, of each public sector pension scheme for which his Department
is responsible; and on what assumptions for (a) discount rate and (b) longevity the estimate is based. [96059]
Mr. McNulty: The latest available information is that in the note on unfunded liabilities placed in Library by my right hon. Friend the Chief Secretary to the Treasury on 2 March 2006, which gives a combined figure for the police and fire service pension schemes of £85 billion.
Mr. Laws: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what recent estimate he has made of the (a) rate and (b) annual cost of employer contributions to each public sector pension scheme for which his Department has responsibility; and if he will make a statement. [96060]
Mr. McNulty: The system for funding police pensions changed as of 1 April 2006. Under the new system, the cost of pensions in payment has been removed from police authorities’ operating accounts. Police authorities now operate a separate pensions account for this purpose, into which are paid officers' contributions and a new employer's contribution. Any deficit is topped up with a grant from central Government; any surplus is recouped.
The new employer's contribution, which is common to both old and new police pension schemes, is set at 24.6 per cent. of an officer's pensionable pay. In addition to this the police authority will pay into the pensions account a charge of twice the officer's average pensionable pay for any officer who retires early on ill-health grounds. We estimate the annual cost of employer contributions (not including ill-health retirement charges) at £1,095 million.
Private Finance Initiative Projects
Mr. Tyrie: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how much has been spent by his Department on Private Finance Initiative projects postponed pending further consideration or stopped in the last 12 months. [96810]
Mr. Byrne: The Department has not postponed pending further consideration or stopped any Private Finance Initiative projects in the last 12 months.
Police
Mr. Skinner: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many police officers in Derbyshire (a) retired and (b) took ill-health retirement in each of the last five years; and if he will make a statement. [95180]
Mr. McNulty: The available data are given in the following tables.
| Police officer medical retirements( 1) (FTE)( 2) for Derbyshire police force from 2001-02 to 2005-06( 3) | |
| Medical Retirements | |
| (1) Data collated on behalf of and published by HMIC. (2) Full-time equivalent figures that have been rounded to the nearfest whole number. (3) Financial year runs 1 April to 31 March inclusive. (4) Data not available. Data for 2005-06 has been collated but not yet been validated. Figures will be available in the HMIC Annual Report 2005-06 due for publication by March 2007. | |
Mr. Stewart Jackson: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what representations his Department has received from (a) Cambridgeshire police authority and (b) Cambridgeshire constabulary on the funding of Cambridgeshire constabulary in the last 12 months; and if he will make a statement. [95400]
Mr. McNulty: We received written representations from the chief constable of Cambridgeshire constabulary and the treasurer to Cambridgeshire police authority in response to the provisional funding settlement for 2006-07 and 2007-08 announced last December.
The chief constable and the chairman of the police authority have also made representations on specific budgetary items earlier in the year.
Mr. Stewart Jackson: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many cautions were issued in the Cambridgeshire constabulary area for (a) violence against the person, (b) theft and handling stolen goods, (c) sexual offences, (d) criminal damage, (e) robbery and (f) fraud and forgery in each of the last five years; and if he will make a statement. [95410]
Mr. McNulty [holding answer 20 October 2006]: Data held by the Office for Criminal Justice Reform for the number of cautions, issued for (a) violence against the person, (b) theft and handling stolen goods, (c) sexual offences, (d) criminal damage, (e) robbery and (f) fraud and forgery in Cambridgeshire police force area, 2000 to 2004 can be found in the following table.
Court proceedings data for 2005 will be available in November 2006.
| Persons cautioned for various offence types, in Cambridgeshire police force area, 2000 to 2004( 1, 2) | |||||
| Number | |||||
| Offence type | 2000 | 2001 | 2002 | 2003 | 2004 |
| (1) These data are provided on the principal offence basis. (2) Every effort is made to ensure that the figures presented are accurate and complete. However, it is important to note that these data have been extracted from large administrative data systems generated by the police. As a consequence, care should be taken to ensure data collection processes and their inevitable limitations are taken into account when those data are used. Source: RDS Office for Criminal Justice Reform. | |||||
Nick Herbert: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many (a) police officers, (b) special constables, (c) police community support officers and (d) support staff are employed in each police force in England and Wales; and what the equivalent figures were in each of the last 10 years. [96464]
Mr. McNulty: The available data are given in the following tables.
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