Issue - meetings

Vicky Jenks told members the report provided a summary of updates in relation to the cost control mechanism; the ongoing Home Office consultation in relation to McCloud; the Matthews second exercise; the proposed pensions dashboard; and immediate detriment. Members were likely to already have a knowledge of the issues contained in the report as the information was taken from the monthly bulletins sent to Fire Pension Scheme stakeholders.

Helen Scargill said there would be some overlap between Warwickshire’s latest governance and regulatory update and the monthly return report that was due to be provided by West Yorkshire the following week, as some of the information contained within it was also gleaned from the monthly update bulletins. The monthly reports from West Yorkshire are due to replace Warwickshire’s governance and regulatory updates at future meetings, with two monthly reports likely to be considered each time. It was likely that Warwickshire would continue to provide policy updates at future meetings however.

Members were shown a draft of the next monthly report, which demonstrated what future reports were likely to look like. Helen Scargill drew members’ attention to the item on key performance indicators and a series of tables that highlighted the work that was currently taking place and how this compared to previous months. Regarding active members, Helen Scargill highlighted that 13 members were shown to be unknown modified as there had been an issue in how their records had been converted during the system update. Now that it was known to be an issue it could be dealt with. The report also contained a section on possible pension scams, although this was unlikely to be an issue as there are limitations in place preventing Fire Pension Scheme members from transferring their pension into the type of arrangement that could be fraudulent. The monthly reports would highlight in red if there were any actions that needed to be completed by Warwickshire.

Helen Scargill said the FRA had enquired about responses to some questionnaires regarding the 2^nd modified exercise and McCloud, but the West Yorkshire Pension Fund did not hold the requested information and it did not have the responsibility to reply. Regarding discretions, West Yorkshire had requested a copy of Warwickshire’s policies as this was felt to be particularly important following the Ombudsman decision in relation to abatement. It was now not possible to have a blanket policy and West Yorkshire needed to know what circumstances needed to apply for a discretion to be made.

The Chair asked if future updates on the number of web registrations taking place could include a comparison to show how Warwickshire’s figures compared to other Fire Authorities. Matthew Mott said this something that was unlikely to be available immediately but could potentially be provided by the autumn.