Agenda and minutes

Surrey Local Firefighters' Pension Board - Friday, 15 January 2021 10.00 am

Venue: Remote via Teams

Contact: Angela Guest 

Media

Items
No. Item

21/21

APOLOGIES FOR ABSENCE AND SUBSTITUTIONS

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    Additional documents:

    Minutes:

    There were none.

22/21

MINUTES FROM THE PREVIOUS MEETING: 18 NOVEMBER 2020 pdf icon PDF 210 KB

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    To approve the Minutes as a correct record.

    Additional documents:

    Minutes:

    The minutes were agreed as an accurate record of the meeting.

23/21

DECLARATIONS OF INTEREST

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    To receive any declarations of disclosable pecuniary interests from Members in respect of any item to be considered at the meeting.

     

    Notes:

    ·         In line with the Relevant Authorities (Disclosable Pecuniary Interests) Regulations 2012, declarations may relate to the interest of the member, or the member’s spouse or civil partner, or a person with whom the member is living as husband or wife, or a person with whom the member is living as if they were civil partners and the member is aware they have the interest.

    ·         Members need only disclose interests not currently listed on the Register of Disclosable Pecuniary Interests.

    ·         Members must notify the Monitoring Officer of any interests disclosed at the meeting so they may be added to the Register.

    ·         Members are reminded that they must not participate in any item where they have a disclosable pecuniary interest.

     

     

    Additional documents:

    Minutes:

    There were none.

24/21

QUESTIONS AND PETITIONS

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    To receive any questions or petitions.

     

    Notes:

     

    1. The deadline for Member’s questions is 12.00pm four working days before the meeting (11/01/2021).

    2. The deadline for public questions is seven days before the meeting (08/01/2021)

    3. The deadline for petitions was 14 days before the meeting, and no petitions have been received.

    Additional documents:

    Minutes:

    There were none.

25/21

ACTION TRACKER pdf icon PDF 342 KB

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    The Board is asked to review and note its action tracker.

     

    Additional documents:

    Minutes:

    Witnesses:

    Sally Wilson, Scheme Manager

     

    Key points raised during the discussion:

     

    The following changes were requested be made to the action tracker:

     

    ·         A11/20 – remove Vice Chairman from owner column

    ·         A14/20 & A15/20 – Scheme Manager and Workforce Information Officerto co-ordinate training

    ·         A16/20 & A19/20 – Change owner to Scheme Manager

    ·         A20/20 – remove Vice Chairman from owner column

    ·         A26/20 – text in brackets to be transferred to update column

    ·         A26/20, A27/20 & A28/20 – to be rated yellow as not complete

     

    Actions/ further information to be provided:

     

    The Scheme Manager and Workforce Information Officer to co-ordinate training for the Board in relation to A14/20 & A15/20.

     

    Resolved:

     

    The Board noted the action tracker.

     

26/21

ADMINISTRATION UPDATE: pdf icon PDF 383 KB

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    The Board is asked to note the content of this report and make recommendations if any further action is required.

     

    Additional documents:

    Minutes:

    Witnesses:

    Tom Lewis, Pensions Support & Development Manager

    Clare Chambers, Pensions Service Delivery Manager

    Sally Wilson, Scheme Manager

     

    Key points raised during the discussion:

    1.    The Scheme Manager introduced an administration update.  This report set out two months of KPI figures, as opposed to the usual three months, due to how the dates of meetings had fallen.  She highlighted the following from the report and its annexes

    ·         2.17 to 2.19 of the KPI annex referring to backlog in transfers which were slowly being dealt with.

    ·         Paragraphs 9 and 10 of the main report regarding opt-outs

    ·         Paragraph 19 of the main report concerning the High Court ruling on GMP equalisation and stated that there may be a need to look at historic transfers out of the scheme.

    ·         She also highlighted paragraphs 24 and 25 and referred to the improving scores regarding common and specific data scores

    ·         Paragraphs 26 and 27 of the main report referring to the work being undertaken with the helpdesk and stated that five new agents had been appointed to work through the 500 to 600 emails.  She also explained that remote working was making learning difficult for the new appointees.

    2.    The Pensions Support & Development Manager explained that the possibility of using East Sussex for support going forward was not an option due to the dissolution of the Orbis arrangement. She highlighted that the risk log for Covid-19 had been reopened.

    3.    A Member asked for the helpdesk contact telephone details to be made more accessible, especially for those that may not have access to the Council’s S-net.

    4.    The Scheme Manager explained that the new supplier, XPS, would soon be setting an implementation work programme and that they had experience of working with the fire service so understood the scheme complexities.

     

    Actions/ further information to be provided:

    1. The Scheme Manager is requested to:

    ·         send a note to all firefighters with helpdesk telephone numbers

    ·         to provide briefing to members on resourcing.

    1. That the Board receive details of the transition plan when it is completed and before the next Board meeting in April.

     

    Recommendations:

     

    The Board notedthe report.

     

27/21

TPR SURVEY RESULTS pdf icon PDF 188 KB

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    The Board is asked to note the content of this report and make recommendations if any further action is required.

     

    Additional documents:

    Minutes:

    Witnesses:

    Sally Wilson, Scheme Manager

     

    Key points raised during the discussion:

    1.    The Chairman stated that he had received notification that the 2020 survey was due to start soon.  He requested that the Scheme Manager provide comparison data for SFRS the next time this report was presented to the Board.

     

    Actions/ further information to be provided:

    1. That the Scheme Manager provide comparison data with future TPR (The Pensions Regulator) survey results.

     

    Recommendations:

     

    The Board noted the report.

     

28/21

SCHEME MANAGEMENT UPDATE REPORT pdf icon PDF 391 KB

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    The Board are asked to note the report.

    Additional documents:

    Minutes:

    Witnesses:

    Sally Wilson, Scheme Manager

     

    Key points raised during the discussion:

    1. Richard Jones had provided a written note of concerns regarding pensionable allowances which are attached as an annex to these minutes. In response to this the Scheme Manager explained that it was not right to share legal advice received but that the advice was being responded to and the Board would be kept updated.  Richard Jones was not happy that employers were unwilling to share the legal advice.
    2. The Scheme Manager also explained that further resources were being sought due to the Project Manager being currently unavailable.
    3. Richard Jones raised a discrepancy of who had been contacted in relation to pension contributions as he had received notice from some that had not been contacted.  He was asked to provide specific details to the Scheme Manager.

     

    Actions/ further information to be provided:

    1. Richard Jones to provide details of members that had not received communication to the Scheme Manager to look into.

     

    Recommendations:

     

    The Board noted the report.

     

29/21

RISK REGISTER pdf icon PDF 95 KB

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    The Board is asked to note the content of this report and to make recommendations of any amendments to the Surrey FFPS Risk Register.

     

    Additional documents:

    Minutes:

    Witnesses:

    Sally Wilson, Scheme Manager

     

    Key points raised during the discussion:

    1. The Scheme Manager updated the Board on changes made to the register and agreed that risk F8 needed to be expanded to incorporate the shortage of trained resources and not just the issue of training and knowledge.
    2. The Chairman requested that risks be reviewed and updated due for the transfer to a new supplier, and the loss of East Sussex as backup.
    3. Risk F16 was discussed in respect of its scoring and mitigations.  The Scheme Manager reported that the risk had been reviewed and that engagement was in place for workforce related changes through internal governance and outcomes were a service-related matter rather than a pension related matter.
    4. Richard Jones requested that a new risk be added in relation to decisions taken by service management that could lead to legal challenge.  The Scheme Manager requested further information so she could look into this.  Richard Jones stated that he was not happy with the response and that he did not agree that the risks were scored adequately.  The Chairman pointed out that F16 was not marked green so was still marked as an ongoing risk.
    5. There was discussion around the risk F24 and whether it explained the problem correctly and whether the mitigations listed would actually mitigate.  The Scheme Manager was happy to review the risk and add further explanation and would discuss with Richard Jones.  The Chairman requested that the score also be reviewed due to possible financial and reputational risk.
    6. The Board requested a new risk be added to the register to identify cyber risks.

     

    Actions/ further information to be provided:

    That the Scheme Manager review:

    • Risk F8
    • Risks F16 and F24 be reviewed after discussion with Richard Jones
    • Risk F24 scoring be reviewed
    • Addition of new risks concerning the transfer to a new administrator, the loss of East Sussex as a back-up, and around cyber security.

     

    Recommendations:

     

    The Board noted the report.

     

30/21

EXCLUSION OF THE PUBLIC

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    Recommendation: That under Section 100(A) of the Local Government Act 1972, the public be excluded from the meeting for the following items of business on the grounds that they involve the likely disclosure of exempt information under the relevant paragraphs of Part 1 of Schedule 12A of the Act.

     

     

    PART TWO – IN PRIVATE

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    Minutes:

    Resolved: That under Section 100(A) of the Local Government Act 1972, the public be excluded from the meeting for the following items of business on the grounds that they involve the likely disclosure of exempt information under the relevant paragraphs of Part 1 of Schedule 12A of the Act.

     

31/21

TPR CORRESPONDENCE

Minutes:

Witnesses:

Sally Wilson, Scheme Manager

 

Key points raised during the discussion:

  1. The Board discussed Part 2 correspondence with The Pensions Regulator.

 

Actions/ further information to be provided:

  1. That the Board be briefing on outsourcing and other programmes as required between Board meetings.

 

Recommendations:

 

The Board noted the TPR correspondence.

 

32/21

PUBLICITY OF PART 2 ITEMS

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    To consider whether the item considered under Part 2 of the agenda should be made available to the Press and public.

    Additional documents:

    Minutes:

    Resolved:

    That the Part 2 correspondence not be made public.

     

33/21

DATE OF THE NEXT MEETING

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    Additional documents:

    Minutes:

    The Board noted that the next meeting would be held on 22 April 2021.