Minutes of the meeting held 5 December

Board Members:

• C Tapp (Chair of Pension Board)
• Cllr Kevin Gillott (County Councillor Member of FRA)
• Sean Connor (Senior HR Partner/Pension Advisor Notts/Leics)
• Mark Nash (Head of Finance)
• Cllr Nigel Gourlay (County Councillor Member of FRA)
• D Carter (Employee Representative)
• Matt Mott (Governance)
• J Edwards (Payroll Manager)
• M Lloyd-Jones (Notes)

Director of Finance/Scheme Manager

Simon Allsop left the Service on 2 December and the Board wished to thank Simon for his commitment and information over the past few years.

From a governance perspective the Board noted that the Scheme Manager is the Fire Authority who delegate to the CFO. Previously the CFO delegated to Simon but the role lies with the CFO Gavin Tomlinson at present.

The Board understand that this is not a practical solution longer term.
Action - Chris Tapp as Chair will speak to CFO Gavin Tomlinson about his intentions to delegate that power to a new Scheme Manager.

Mark Nash will attend meetings as an interim measure.

1. Apologies

• Helen Scargill (Relationship Manager WYPF)
• A Barrett (HR)
• E Stevenson (HR)

2. Declarations

There were no declarations of interest.

3. Minutes from the Previous Meeting and Actions Arising

The Board agreed the accuracy of the last minutes of 6 September 2022.

• Review Risk Register
  A new localised training programme will commence in the New Year. Members encouraged to log onto the directed training modules on the Pension Regulator website. Helen Scargill has also offered to undertake bespoke training if required.
  Action - H Scargill to circulate training schedules used by other Services.
  Action - Board Members agreed to increase “training” to the likelihood of 4 until training is completed and sufficient knowledge and understanding gained.
• WYPF Monthly Bulletin
  Action - S Connor to produce a WIS article to raise the numbers of MyPension registrations.

4. IDRP Update (Internal Dispute Resolution)

Board Members noted that H Minion has discharged an IDRP case to Sean Connor. The Board noted details of the case which relates to backdated retained modified pension exercise undertaken in 2014 and considered the wider impact.

Board Members agreed that the Appeal should be upheld.
Action - the case was discussed in principle with Simon Allsop and a Delegated Powers to CFO Tomlinson for signature would be required. C Tapp and S Connor would meet with affected members as soon as possible and S Connor would then update CFO Tomlinson.
Action - S Connor would confirm the outcome with the other two Scheme Managers as wider communication would be required.

Board Members noted that in resolving this individual Appeal there would be a national approach. There are 75 cases over the 3 Services and all individuals would be written to.
Action - S Connor would ensure a priority list is provided for J Edwards and the Payroll Team.

5. SAB Letter Dashboards

Action - S Connor to circulate SAB Letter from the LGA to administrators regarding the requirement for Pension Administrators to sign up to the Dashboard and provide data.

Letter in response has been provided by H Scargill to confirm WY meet requirements.

The Board noted that there had been a delay but M Mott and the WY Finance Team are aware that monthly returns should be dealt with within 10 days and have committed to doing this within the next year - the system for doing this is being improved.

J Edwards confirmed the process from a DFRS perspective.

Action - M Mott to confirm postings are up-to-date.

6. Risk Register

Action - The Board agreed that the Risk Register should be updated to include “Delegated Scheme Manager has left the Service and with the CFO at present” as a Medium Risk. There is a level of expertise in Service to mitigate the risk but this should remain as a risk until a resource has been allocated.

Action - Members discussed TPR and agreed for M Nash to add to the Risk Register.

Action - M Nash to share updated Risk Register with Board Members.

Action - M Nash to add “Dashboard” to the Risk Register.

7. WYPF Monthly Report - November

Board Members noted the November Report and the KPIs that didn’t make the target.

Registrations is going up slightly month by month.

Action - C Tapp to update the FF Pensions part of the tile on FireView to reflect that FF pensions are not part of the LGPS and therefore are unfunded schemes and do not therefore have investments in areas such as fossil fuels that could ask ethical and moral questions of the funds.

8. ID Remedy

Action - S Connor to remind Members via the WIS that when asking for forecasts they must check their benefit statement and seek clarity from the Service that the date asking for is accurate as there are anomalies such as unpaid leave, parental leave, strike days.

Action - S Connor to produce a plan pre Oct 23 for Cat 2 cases (dependent on action from meeting on 6.12.22) to give FRA backdated assurance.

9. RDS Modified Second Exercise Proposals

Board Members noted that data has been provided to Government to help with national discussions. By April 2023 all Services will be in a good position subject to legislation.

10. AOB

Future meetings will be set at the next meeting on 16 March 2023.