Agenda and minutes

No new interests were declared.

Notes of the meeting held on 8 December 2021 attached.

The Notes of the meeting held on 8 December 2021 were AGREED.

Review of Actions of previous meeting attached.

CONSIDERED updated Action Log (at 7 March 2022) listing Open Actions. Progress against actions was indicated in the comments column. It was noted that:

·           several actions had been closed at the last meeting and had been removed;

·           cyber security remained open – MP to follow up on feedback from WYPF on their business continuity plan. This was not seen as a high-risk but was probably more relevant now as a result of increased cyber-risk related to the Ukraine Crisis. WYPF was looking at this and would advise of any change in stance. Action: MP to contact WYPF to ask to be informed of outcome of any reviews;

·           Administration & Governance Strategy. The LGA template had been finalised and the Board had previously confirmed it would adapt and adopt the Template. The Service was processing this and it was intended to finalise the adapted template for discussion by the next meeting as necessary;

·           Recruitment of replacement Scheme Member representative. It was intended this should be completed by the next Board meeting;

·           Development of KPIs. This, again, was not seen as high-risk but would be progressed as soon as possible;

·           The Risk Register had been reviewed in January 2022. The updated register featured as part of the agenda for this meeting;

·           Public Service Governance and Administration Survey. It was intended to complete the self-assessment based on publication of the 2021 survey results. Action: ZS to ascertain whether the 2021 survey results had been published. The Pension Regulators self-assessment toolkit would be recirculated to Board Members and a desktop exercise undertaken to update it;

·           Training Needs Analysis – to be reviewed and refreshed once the new Scheme Member representative had been appointed. The refreshed TNA would be used to inform future training opportunities and Topics of Interest.

(See also Notes LPB/22/4, LPB/22/7, LPB/22/8 and LPB/22/10 below)

Attached.

NOTED latest version of the Board Training Log (updated November 2021). This indicated that all Board Members were in-date for completion of the Pension Regulator (tPR) e-learning modules.

MP commented that a two-yearly review period was in operation. JL should undertake a refresh in or shortly after March 2022, with MP and SR to undertake a refresh in or shortly after June 2022 . Once the refresh was undertaken, updated certificates would be published on the website.

MM commented that the Code of Practice was to be reviewed by tPR. This might impact on the e-learning modules and it could be worth pausing the refresh period until this was clarified. Action: MAT to establish when the revised Code of Practice would be published and advise as to whether this would impact on the refresh period for the e-learning modules.

(See also Note LPB/22/3 above)

Document attached.

NOTED latest version of log listing correspondence received and circulated to Board Members since the last meeting.

To confirm that the website is up-to-date.

The website was considered up-to-date at present. Board Members were encouraged to keep the page under review and advise of further amendments required as necessary.

To review the register (attached).

CONSIDERED latest version (v1.11) of the Board Risk Register. The Register was a “live” document and could be updated at any stage. Mitigating actions had been listed against each risk, together with an indication as to whether further control actions were required. These, in turn, impacted on the net risk score.

High risks relating to cyber-attack and pensions remedy had been reduced to amber net risk scores by mitigating actions. It was likely that COVID-19 would be removed by the next refresh of the Risk Register.

In response to a question from JL, ZS responded that the LGA did not have any further updates to the position on the framework for the immediate detriment remedy. MP added that the Authority had not fully adopted the Memorandum of Understanding for Category 2 cases (former employees who had already retired) in light of strong advice from central government. The Authority was, though, still progressing Category 1 cases (firefighters wishing to require).

Additionally, from 1 April 2022, any adjustments to a lump sum that had been in payment for more than twelve months would no longer be deemed an unauthorised payment but, for Category 2 cases, there were still issues on which further guidance was awaited.

The priority so far had been to address Category 1 cases of firefighters wishing to retire now and who could take benefits under the 1992 Scheme. Once the position for Category 2 cases was clarified, the Board and representative bodies would be notified. The indicative timeline for resolving outstanding issues was October 2023.

(See also Note LPB/22/9 below)

Paper attached.

CONSIDERED paper providing an update on Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) for both the Service and the Board. This detailed progress against the two established KPIs:

1.    submission of monthly pension reporting to WYPF by the last day of the month – secured for each month up to and including February 2022, with the exception of January 2022. The January 2022 submission was one day late due to a system upgrade causing an error to the report, requiring it to be resubmitted; and

2.    notifications of normal retirement and timeframes for submission – the Pay and Conditions Team had continued to submit notifications of normal retirements to WYPF within the SLA of five days of receipt, with the exception of February 2022 when two leaver notifications had not been marked as “retirement” in the leaving reason and consequently had been processed as standard resignations. MAT would be reviewing the leaver process, to include how this was communicated to staff.

Since the last report there had been 11 retirements, the paperwork for five of which (45%) had been submitted to WYPF outside the six-week SLA requirement. This was due to information being submitted to the Pay and Conditions Team with insufficient notice. There was incongruence between the notice period staff had to give and the six-week timeframe.

MP commented that, pending other workloads, it should be possible to include additional metrics (e.g. overall number of scheme members, as per the WYPF report; other metrics as may be indicated by the Code of Practice and the Governance & Administration Strategy) to the report. Action: ZS to consider for the next Board meeting.

(See also Note LPB/22/3 above)

Paper attached.

CONSIDERED paper summarising current pension matters both locally and nationally which required input from the Service. In particular, the paper addressed:

Governance & Strategy

This document was currently being prepared for publication on the Pensions webpage.

Pension Communications

The LGA had published an FPS 2015 Remedy Factchecker on its website. The Pensions Ombudsman was running a series of short webinars at the end of March and had published several new factsheets on its website.

The MoU and the second options exercise relating to the Matthews and O’Brien cases had been published and was currently being assessed by the Service. There would be a degree of overlap, timing-wise, with the McCloud/Sargeant issues. The next steps would be for the Service and WYPF to provide aggregation numbers to the LGA by 31 May 2022. MP commented that it would be useful for the representative bodies to keep the Service informed as to any communications being issued by representative bodies directly to members to facilitate co-ordinated working as far as possible. Any deadlines directly impacting on members would need to be communicated to members at the earliest opportunity, by signposting, FAQs etc.

Pension Projects (2015 Remedy [Sargeant])

The total number of confirmed retirements being processed under the Immediate Detriment totalled 12 FPS Members against an initial 25 requests. The LGA had recommended all authorities to provide protected members with written confirmation that they would be moved into the 2015 Scheme from 1 April 2022. Within the Service there were currently 74 protected members in total who had remained in the three final salary schemes. The Pensions Officer would be contacting each of these together with those in on-call roles before the end of March 2022.

Reporting Breaches of Law

There had been no breaches to report since last meeting. MP questioned whether the incorrect deductions of state benefits from the injury pensions was a reportable breach. Action: ZS to complete the assessment as to whether this was a breach and if so whether it would be reportable.

Internal Dispute Resolution Procedure (IDRP)

There had been no new complaints under the Procedure since the last Board meeting.

Board Membership

The recruitment process for a new Scheme Member representative to fill the existing vacancy would commence before the end of March 2022.

(See also Notes LPB/22/3 and LPB/22/7 above)

The following topics of interest had previously been identified:

·         Record keeping (initially for discussion at the September 2021 meeting); and

·         Resolving disputes (initially for discussion at the December 2021 meeting).

Unfortunately, unavailability of LGA resources meant that it was not possible to deal with these topics of interest at those meetings. This remains the case at present.

These topics of interest will be carried forward for discussion at a future meeting (pending availability of LGA resources) and a proposed refresh of the Board training needs analysis will be used to inform further topics of interest for discussion at meetings.

It was noted that the topics of interest initially scheduled for the September 2021 meeting (Record Keeping) and the December 2021 meeting (Resolving disputes) had been further deferred pending availability of LGA resources. Additionally, a proposed refresh of the Board training needs analysis would be used to inform further topics of interest for discussion at future meetings. Action: ZS to contact LGA to assess availability of resources to address Topics of Interest on Record Keeping and Resolving Disputes at the next Board meeting.

(See also Notes LPB/22/3 and LPB/22/4 above)

Attached. To review programme and items for the next Board meeting on 22 June 2022.

NOTED latest version of the Board work programme to December 2022.

MP commented that there were no appointments requiring review (the next being in June 2023 – a Scheme Manager appointee for the Authority to determine). The annual review of the Board Terms of Reference and Roles and Responsibilities would be considered alongside adoption of the Governance & Administration Strategy. The Board would be provided with copies of the forthcoming Pension Regulator annual return once issued, together with the subsequent Service return.

The annual review of Board’s internal controls (as per tPR Code of Practice) would be undertaken and circulated to Board Members in advance of the next meeting.

The Work Programme would be rolled forward to cover 2023 and 2024. Board Members were invited to notify MP of any additional items they would wish added.

15.00hours, Wednesday 22 June 2022 via Microsoft Teams.

15.00hours, Wednesday 22 June 2022 via Microsoft Teams