Managing the police pension scheme

The Home Office manage the overall framework for the police pension schemes across England and Wales. It is known as the ‘responsible authority’.

• Regulations: The Home Office creates and amends the regulations that govern the police pension scheme
• Funding: It ensures that there is enough money to fund the pension scheme, without impacting operational police budgets
• Consultations: The Home Office runs consultations about proposed changes to the scheme

The Scheme Advisory Board (SAB) is responsible for the overall governance of the police pension scheme at a national level across England and Wales

The Scheme Advisory Board has an independent chair and comprises of representatives from scheme managers and staff associations. It meets four times a year.

Their main duties are:

• Provide advice on request, to the Secretary of State for the Home Office Department on the desirability of changes
• Provide advice, on request or otherwise, to scheme managers and pension boards in relation to the effective and efficient administration and management of the pension scheme and any statutory pension scheme that relates to it

A team at the National Police Chiefs Council (NPCC) are responsible for providing strategic oversight, guidance and support to the 43 police forces across England and Wales about the police pension scheme. The national pensions team has seven pillars of work to help achieve this: 

1. Communications - Ensure effective and efficient communication and guidance is available for scheme managers and members
2. Uniformity and collaboration - Develop the capability and capacity to deliver effective pension arrangements across 43 individual scheme managers
3. Effective technical scrutiny - Ensure legislation is appropriately developed, with consistent interpretation of rules and regulations
4. Support and guidance - Share best practice and provide peer support across different stakeholder groups including chief financial officers, administrators, software suppliers and wider public sector bodies
5. Funding - Progress the key police pension funding issues
6. Legal compliance - Lead and respond to legal action against scheme managers and obtain advice from counsel on the most significant legal issues, avoiding confusion, duplication of effort and unnecessary cost
7. Effective governance - Engage with the scheme advisory board, local pension boards and the pension regulator

The Chief Constable/Commissioner of each of the individual 43 police forces across England and Wales is the scheme manager. This means that they are responsible for the administration, management and governance of the police pension scheme for their force. Although some activities may be delegated to other people and some functions may be outsourced, the scheme manager retains overall responsibility for the operation of the scheme.

Each police force will also have a police pension board who assist the scheme manager with the running of the scheme.

The scheme manager chooses how the administration duties will be carried out. The administrator will:

• Manage the day-to-day operations such as issuing retirement quotations and managing payments
• Maintain member records so that data is up to date and accurate
• Act as the primary point of contact for members who have queries
• Ensure the scheme is run in compliance with the laws and legislation in place