Accounting for Retirement Benefits – FRS17

You will have, by now, received a Dear Accounting Officer letter from the Accountability and Accountancy Services Division of the Department of Finance and Personnel requiring public bodies preparing accounts under FREM to meet the full reporting requirements under FRS17 for a defined benefit scheme in accounts for 2006/07 onwards.

Other public bodies who prepare accounts following different accounting guidance may also be required to adopt FRS17 depending on the requirements of the accounting guidance they are following. The DAO letter can be found on the following website: www.aasdni.gov.uk/pubs/DAOs/dao1106.doc

Compliance with the disclosures required under FRS17 is a requirement of the Department of Finance and Personnel. However, NILGOSC is willing to obtain FRS17 reports for those employers needing them from the Actuary.

The Actuary takes up to 6 weeks to produce each FRS17 report and this may take longer in the busy periods. It is therefore important that your request for an FRS17 report is submitted to NILGOSC as early as possible and should include the following details:

1. Your organisation’s financial year-end.

2. The accounting principles used by your organisation e.g. FREM, CIPFA, Local Government SORP etc..

3. The number of years’ information required. If you are in any doubt, please consult your auditors.

4. The date by which the FRS17 report is required.

The Actuary makes a charge of £ 2,800 plus VAT for each report that requires the opening position to be calculated and £ 1,600 plus VAT for those where no opening position is required.

We are able to obtain a discount from the Actuary if we can submit requests for FRS17 reports at the same time. To do this, we need to co-ordinate such requests. In order to avail of the discount (which is dependent on the number of requests made), please submit to me your information request by 31 December 2006.

All FRS17 information requests should be sent to Andrew Yap, Finance Manager whose email address is: andrew.yap@nilgosc.org.uk

Yours sincerely

Andrew Yap

Finance Manager