Under the Local Government Pension Scheme there is an administering body that oversees the pension fund for an area, for example a county council. That body administers the scheme on behalf of ‘admitted bodies’ in the area such as district councils.
The admitted bodies’ pensions figures will be material and are largely estimated. The auditors of the admitted bodies write to the auditor of the administering body requesting information and evidence on the operation of the pension fund on matters such as the controls over membership information, to enable them to complete their audit of those material figures. The administering body’s auditor then responds to them (the IAS 19 letter). This avoids the administering body having to deal with all of those auditors directly, and so is the most efficient option.
The administering body Scale Fee includes the cost of the IAS 19 audit work for admitted bodies that are covered by the Code of Audit Practice. We have updated that cost to standardise it across all firms and to ensure that the number of bodies is correct.