Agenda and draft minutes

There were no conflicts of interests reported.

Agreed as an accurate record.

To confirm the items of business marked Part I will be considered in public and that items marked Part II will be considered in private.

That Agenda Item 8 be considered in private for the reasons stated on the agenda.

The report provided the Board with an update on the status of fund compliance through the Pension Regulator Checklist.

The Board was reminded that at the meeting in April 2016, the Board discussed and reviewed the Pensions Regulator Checklist which had been completed by AON Hewitt and officers. The checklist had been carried out to measure how the fund was performing on its governance and management of the scheme in relation to the Pensions Regulator requirements to identify any gaps for improvement.

At the initial review in April 2016 the fund had met the majority of the requirements but there were a number of non complaint and partially complaint issues where progress was being made.

The Board was informed that officers had updated the compliance checklist with improvements made over the past 18 months in integrating training and the work by Board to review and create a suite of policies for the fund, as well as the move from Capita to Surrey County Council for the administration of the fund.

There had been improved compliance on 29 items, with 17 partially compliant items outstanding and no non compliant items remaining.

RESOLVED –

1.   That the update on the compliance of the Pensions Regulator Checklist be noted.

The Board was reminded of previous discussions on insurance cover for Members of Pension Board who were neither Elected Members nor employees of the Council.

The Board was informed that the Council's main insurer had offered a specific extension to the Official Indemnity Policy, to cover Local Pension Board members and this extension had been added to the existing policy.

RESOLVED –

1.   That the update provided was noted.

The Board was updated on the research which had been carried out on how other local Pension Boards were operated.

Members were informed that the membership requirements for Pension Boards were:

·                     Membership must consist of an equal number of scheme member representative and employer representatives.

·                     There must be a minimum of 4 people on the Board.

·                     The people designated as employer representatives must have the capacity to represent employers and those designated as employee representatives must have capacity to represent scheme members.

·                     No officer or elected Member responsible for discharge of duties in relation to the pension fund can sit on the Pension board.

The Board was informed that from the research carried out, Pension Board structures across London had shown that the majority of councils had 4 members in total, comprising of 2 employer and 2 employee representatives. There were 3 Boroughs that had all employer representatives as Councillors and a third of Boroughs had no Councillor Members at all.

The majority of Funds had Admitted Body representation on their Boards as employer representatives.

Officers reported that the main proposal would be for a similar composition of the Board, but that the employer representation would not consist wholly of Councillors from the London Borough of Hillingdon, but would be open to other employer bodies contributing to the Fund.

The Board was informed that the proposals would be submitted to the Council for approval. 

RESOLVED –

1. That the information report be noted and approval be given to the approach to be adopted for the future operation of the local Pension Board. 

[At this point Councillor Simmonds left the meeting and vacated the Chair. It was moved and seconded that Councillor John Morse be appointed Chairman for the rest of the meeting.]

Members of the Board are asked to bring their copy of the Pensions Committee agenda of 25 September 2017 to the meeting.

This item was discussed as a Part II item without the press or public present as the information under discussion contained confidential or exempt information as defined by law in the Local Government (Access to Information) Act 1985.  This was because it discussed ‘information relating to the financial or business affairs of any particular person (including the authority holding that information)’ (paragraph 3 of the schedule to the Act).

The Board was provided with the agenda for the last Pensions Committee which took place on 25 September 2017.

The Board was provided with further detail in relation to Pension Fund Administration and in particular performance in relation to the sending out of the Annual Benefit Statements. It was reported that 82.5% of statements had been sent out and this would be reported as a breach to the Pension Regulator.   

The reports were noted.