Agenda and minutes

To agree the minutes of the meeting held on 7 February 2017 as an accurate record and note any actions.

RESOLVED

That the minutes of the meeting held on 7 February 2017 were agreed as a correct record and were signed by the Chair.

Apologies for absence were received from Councillor Ali Hashem, Orin Miller, and Peter Worth.

If a Councillor has a disclosable pecuniary interest in a particular item, whether or not it is entered in the Authority’s register of interests, or any other significant interest which they consider should be declared in the public interest, they should declare the existence and, unless it is a sensitive interest as defined in the Member Code of Conduct, the nature of the interest at the commencement of the consideration of that item or as soon as it becomes apparent.

At meetings where members of the public are allowed to be in attendance and speak, any Councillor with a disclosable pecuniary interest or other significant interest may also make representations, give evidence or answer questions about the matter.  The Councillor must then withdraw immediately from the meeting before the matter is discussed and any vote taken.

Where Members of the public are not allowed to be in attendance and speak, then the Councillor with a disclosable pecuniary interest should withdraw from the meeting whilst the matter is under consideration. Councillors who have declared other significant interests should also withdraw from the meeting if they consider their continued participation in the matter would not be reasonable in the circumstances and may give rise to a perception of a conflict of interest.

Councillors are not obliged to withdraw from the meeting where a dispensation to that effect has been obtained from the Audit, Pensions and Standards Committee.

There were no declarations of interest.

Minutes of the Pensions Sub Committee meetings held on 15 March and 20 June 2017.

The Board noted the following recommendation under Item 9 from the minutes of Pensions Sub-Committee held on 15 March -  Investment Strategy Review: That the Pensions Sub-Committee considered how they explained the balance between their fiduciary responsibilities and the desire to invest in socially responsible assets’.

Councillor Rory Vaughan asked for a copy of the Pensions Board minutes to be included in the Pensions Sub-Committee agenda for consideration. Amrita Gill said that the agenda had already been published, however would forward this recommendation to Councillor Iain Cassidy, Chair of the Pensions Sub-Committee for consideration at the next meeting. She added that for future Pensions Sub-Committee meetings she would include the minutes of the previous Pensions Board meeting in the agenda pack.

Action: Amrita Gill

RESOLVED

The minutes of the Pensions Sub-Committee were noted.

Update report from Interim Director of Pensions and Treasury.

Sue Hands presented the report for the Pension Fund Business Plan 2017-2018 and noted that it was best practice for Council services to have business plans that set out objectives of the service. She added that it was equally important to ensure that there was as much standardisation and compliance as possible across the three Councils to ensure economies of scales and associated savings were delivered.

It was noted that there had been a high turnover of staff in the past year, however, the plan was to extend the department and that the successful recruitment of three new permanent members of staff, who would be starting over the coming months, would provide long term stability and ensure adequate resources were available to the three funds to achieve the planned activities.

Councillor Vaughan asked if there was any reason for a high staff turnover. Sue Hands noted that it was due to staff moving on for personal and development reasons.

Sue Hands in reference to page 21 of the report, summarised the most recent valuation assessment of the funding levels and the latest membership numbers based upon information available as at 31 March 2017 and noted that funding levels varied across all three boroughs varied, however, the funds were heading in the right direction.                 

In response to a question David Coates noted that all three Boroughs were managed separately, in relation to shared services, however BT Shared Service work would be outsourced to Hampshire County Council, and that Hammersmith and Fulham were expected to transfer and go live in September 2018.

The pensions administrative service would continue to be managed by Surrey County Council (SCC), however the payrolls and pensions deductions from summary would be managed by Hampshire County Council.   

RESOLVED

That the Pensions Board noted the Pension Fund Business Plan.

Verbal Update update from David Coates

David Coates tabled a paper (Appendix A) and provided an update of the performance of SCC pension administration services to 30 June 2017. 85% of helpdesk queries were handled without the need to refer to another colleague, this had exceeded the target of 80%. He also noted that all targets had been achieved for annual exercises and monthly pensioner payroll. Day to day work had a target of 100%, however projections requests from employees had a score of 58%. This would improve as the new system allowed employees to run their own projections. SCC were also processing monthly BT files for starters, changes, and leavers from April 2017 therefore the score for deferred benefits would also improve.

Members queried if a Pensions newsletter had been sent out in April 2017. David Coates said that he would follow this up and update the Board.

Action: David Coates

Councillor Rory Vaughan asked what measures were in place to determine SCC’s quality assurance. David Coates informed the Board that regular monthly meetings had taken place with SCC to discuss figures and it was fair to say that these figures were accurate. Furthermore, there had been no complaints in terms of the services provided from SCC. He noted that a separate audit had also taken place and all requirements had been met.

David Coates, in reference to Appendix A provided an update on the inherited Capita backlog performance and noted that there were 157 cases that had not yet been brought into payment. This was because the former employee could not be traced, however tracing services were being introduced to identify individuals. Councillor Vaughan queried if this could be because individuals had forgotten/ lost their log in details, therefore were unable to access their Pensions statements. David Coates explained that Pensions statements had been emailed to individuals who had provided email addresses and a step-by-step guide on how to log on securely was sent to the home addresses of those without email addresses.

David Coates said that overall he was happy with how SCC had performed. The Board thanked David Coates for providing a report on the performance and acknowledged the good work and efforts made by SCC.

The next meeting will be held on 7 February 2018.

The next meeting will be held on 7 February 2018.