Issue - meetings

Pension policies and review dates for Warwickshire Fire & Rescue

Meeting: 26/11/2020 - Warwickshire Fire and Rescue Local Pension Board of the Firefighters' Pension Scheme (Item 4)

4 Pension policies and review dates for Warwickshire Fire & Rescue pdf icon PDF 188 KB

Additional documents:

Minutes:

Neil Buxton, Technical Specialist - Pension Fund Policy and Governance, presented this report to the Board which explained that several policies and statements needed to be in place to ensure the successful administration of the Firefighter Pension Schemes. Historically, the authority had relied upon and followed the policies that were in place for the Local Government Pension Scheme for administering the Firefighters’ Pension

Schemes, but the recent Finance Service restructure had presented an opportunity to increase the capacity within the Pensions Service, thus allowing a greater focus on developing policies that were specific to the requirements of the Firefighters’ Pension Schemes, and ensuring that the governance requirements of the Pensions Regulator were met.  An appendix to the report set out the required policies, three of which would be presented to the next meeting in March: Breaches Policy, Conflicts of Interest Policy and Terms of Reference.

 

In response to a question on when breaches may occur, Neil Buxton gave the examples non-payment of employer contributions or annual benefits statements not being issued. 

 

In relation to a query regarding the preparation of the Risk Register and the inclusion of the potential impact of devolution proposals, Liz Firmstone, Service Manager (Transformation), advised that the Risk Register would be developed over the coming weeks and months, following an horizon scanning process which would take into account the potential for local government reorganisation.  The Chair invited Mr Reohorn to comment from his position of experience in relation to proposals for a police and crime commissioner to take on fire governance, and he responded that the proposals had not made a significant difference to the risk of making sure members received the benefits they were entitled to. 

 

The Chair shared with the Board that he had recently attended an informative training session by AON in relation to Cyber Security and he indicated that he would share the presentation slides with Officers to send to the Board Members.