Agenda and minutes

Councillor Parminder Singh Birdi

None

Following introductory comments, the Chair explained why the special meeting had been called. The issue had been raised in the last scheduled meeting of the board on 8 July 2019 with members questioning the significance of the potential breach of the Pensions Regulator Code. On 22 July 2019, the assessment of the breach was confirmed as amber with details circulated to members of the board via a briefing note. Keith Francis raised further questions in relation to the issues on 31 July 2019, asking if the problem was caused by the implementation of a new payroll system or a manual process and if there was any material impact on members who were seeking transfers. Alan Kidner raised further questions regarding the breach via email on 18 August 2019 and whether it should be reported to the Pensions Regulator.

It was agreed on 19 August 2019 that a special meeting of the board would be held on 19 September 2019. The Chair thanked officers for, for the speed with which the special meeting was arranged. It was confirmed that the scope of the special meeting would be to discuss the breach. Rob Powell, Strategic Director for Resources introduced the report and explained the assessment and classification process. He went on to confirm that a programme of work had been set in train to strengthen the administration of the fund since the breach was reported, setting out what had been done already and further planned activity.

He noted that:

• the breach was considered a serious matter that had been thoroughly and independently reviewed by both the Assistant Director of Finance and the Strategic Director for Resources in his capacity as Section 151 Officer;

• following an assessment against the Pensions Regulator’s toolkit, it had been concluded that this was an amber breach, and officers remained confident this was the appropriate classification; and

• officers are continuing to focus on modernising the pension administration team as part of finance transformation programme, including a review of resourcing. The board was given an explanation for each section of the report presented at the meeting and reasons why the breach had been categorised as amber following a detailed review against the Pensions Regulator’s assessment toolkit. The criteria for a red breach classification were set out with an explanation of why they did not apply to the breach being discussed. It was noted that the breach potentially affected 5,800 members of the fund (12%). In total 518 members were directly affected, specifically 27 transfers and 491 refunds. It was noted that there are approximately 50,000 members of the pension fund, so the number of fund members potentially impacted was small. Board members expressed their concern at the slow pace at which issues were identified, escalated and resolved. Rob Powell confirmed that since his arrival he had instituted regular review meetings with officers in respect of pension fund activity and performance, and finance team met more regularly to identify issues more quickly to avoid such delays in  ...  view the full minutes text for item 2.