Date posted: 01/02/2006

Audience: Accounting Officers and Pay and Pension managers

Action: To note the change of wording and new versions of the certificate, to be completed for year end 2005-6.

Timing: Immediate

Detail

  1. The Minister for the Civil Service delegates responsibility for administering the Civil Service Pensions arrangements to you, the employer. Although employers contract an Authorised Pension Administration Centre (APAC) to carry out day-to-day pensions administration, you retain overall responsibility for your staff’s pensions. At the end of each financial year your Accounting Officer (who is normally your permanent secretary or chief executive) has to sign an Accounting Officer’s Certificate (AOC). This certificate confirms that your organisation has carried out its roles and responsibilities in accordance with our guidance (please see the Employers’ Pension Guide for further information).
  2. We are not asking Accounting Officers to do anything that they have not done before. Instead, we have changed the wording of the AOC simply to give greater emphasis to your most important tasks, which are:
  • managing your APAC, and
  • providing correct data through your payroll interface with the PenServer pension administration software which the APAC uses
  • paying over contributions under the Accruing Superannuation Liability Charge mechanism
  • paying over of partnership pension contributions and additional voluntary contributions to the appropriate third party provider(s)

Completing the AOC

  1. There will be two versions of the AOC. One is for your Accounting Officer to sign on behalf of your organisation. The other is for those of you who have ‘sponsor department’ responsibilities for non-departmental public bodies and offices. This version makes clearer your sponsor responsibilities and again the Accounting Officer should sign it. Examples of both certificates are attached.
  2. We will email our contacts within your organisation before the end of the financial year with templates of the new style AOCs for you to sign. Please note that the return by date will be 30 April 2006.

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

Published:
1 February 2006
Last updated:
24 April 2023