Agenda and draft minutes

Surrey Local Firefighters' Pension Board - Friday, 26 April 2024 2.00 pm

Venue: Committee Room, Woodhatch Place, 11 Cockshot Hill, Reigate, Surrey, RH2 8EF

Contact: Joss Butler  Email: joss.butler@surreycc.gov.uk

Media

Items
No. Item

13/24

APOLOGIES FOR ABSENCE AND SUBSTITUTIONS

    Additional documents:

    Minutes:

    The Chairman welcomed officers and the new Vice-Chairman, Sally Wilson, to the Board. The Chairman thanked the previous Vice-Chairman, Dan Quin, for his service to the Board.

     

    No apologies for absence were received.

     

     

14/24

MINUTES FROM THE PREVIOUS MEETING: 8 February 2024 pdf icon PDF 119 KB

    To agree the minutes as a true record of the meeting.

    Additional documents:

    Minutes:

    The minutes from the meeting on 8 February 2024 were agreed as an accurate record of the meeting.

     

     

15/24

DECLARATIONS OF INTEREST

    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:

    None.

16/24

QUESTIONS AND PETITIONS

    To receive any questions or petitions.

     

    Notes:

     

    1. The deadline for Member’s questions is 12.00pm four working days before the meeting (22 April 2024).

    2. The deadline for public questions is seven days before the meeting (19 April 2024)

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

    Additional documents:

    Minutes:

    There were none.

17/24

SURREY FIREFIGHTERS' PENSION BOARD ACTION AND RECOMMENDATION TRACKER pdf icon PDF 158 KB

    The Board to note the Action and Recommendation Tracker.

    Additional documents:

    Minutes:

    Witnesses:

    Danni Lamaignere, Scheme Manager

    Gary Bartliff, Senior Pensions Advisor

     

    Key points raised during the discussion:

     

    1. The Chairman introduced the Action and Recommendation Tracker and thanked officers for their work updating the latest tracker. The following comments were raised:

     

    Action A7/23 – The Vice-Chairman asked whether the pensions regulator had been updated in regard to the completion of Annual Benefit Statements. A discussion was had on whether this was necessary, as it was an internal breech, which had been remidied, and, following discussion, officers were asked to provide members with an update at the next meeting.

     

    Actions/ further information to be provided:

     

    None.

     

    Resolved:

     

    The Board noted the Actions and Recommendations Tracker.

     

18/24

SCHEME MANAGEMENT UPDATE REPORT pdf icon PDF 196 KB

    The Board has requested an update on Scheme management activities.

    Additional documents:

    Minutes:

    Witnesses:

    Danni Lamaignere, Scheme Manager

    Gary Bartliff, Senior Pensions Advisor

     

    Key points raised during the discussion:

     

    1. The Scheme Manager introduced the report and highlighted the following points:
      1. McCloud - Age Discrimination Remedy – It was noted that the GAD calculation data was sent to XPS for the unprotected & tapered pension members in March 2024 in order to meet the deadline for the production of their Remediable Service Statements (RSS).  The Pension Team continued to work on the GAD data collection exercise to collate and report the GAD calculator data to XPS for each cohort of membership, in accordance with the RSS timetable. Members further noted that the Project Implementation Data Requests had been completed.
      2. 10% Pensionable Allowance – Members noted that the project had been put on hold due to resources in the Pensions Team and the priority given to dealing with issues arising from the implementation of Unit 4. 
      3. Pension Team Resourcing – it was noted that the Pensions Team had appointed to the post of Pensions Officer; however the individual concerned secured another role elsewhere in the Council. The Job description is currently being reviewed and will be placed out to advert imminently.
      4. Matthews – Retained Scheme – On-Call Access – It was noted that the Pensions Team continued to receive completed EOI forms and currently have received replies from roughly 41%. The Workforce Working Group agreed to a tracing exercise in January 2024.  The Pensions Team are currently looking at  potential data protection issues before carrying out the trace. In regard to the timeline for completion of statements, members noted that the project completion deadline was March 2025. To date, 11 statements had been sent of the 60 that should have been issued - due to low resources, the complexity of the calculations and statement completion, and the data needed to complete the calculations. Members of the Board stated that it would be helpful to receive a further update at the next meeting on the project’s progress. Following further discussion, the Board asked for detail on the implications for the SFRS and pension members if the deadline was missed. Officers agreed to provide a response following the meeting.
      5. Annual Benefit Statements / Remediable Service Statement – Members noted a correction sent to members in the newsletter, signposting to information on the SharePoint site in April 2024.
      6. Guaranteed Minimum Pension (GMP) Rectification – Members noted that data from Mercer had recently been sent to XPS to allow completion of the exercise.
      7. Pension Dashboard – Members noted that XPS had created a document to help schemes get Pensions Dashboard ready and would follow with a Dashboard Connection Readiness Report which will be more specific to SFRS.  The expected staging date for Public Service Pension Schemes will be around September 2025.
      8. Pre-Retirement Course – noted that, following positive feedback from the first two courses held by Affinity Connect in 2023, the Pension Team have arranged two further course dates, in April 2024 and September 2024. Members noted that 8 -10  ...  view the full minutes text for item 18/24

19/24

XPS - SURREY FIRE & RESCUE AUTHORITY PENSION BOARD REPORT pdf icon PDF 470 KB

    To note the XPS – Surrey Fire and Rescue Authority Pension Board report.

    Additional documents:

    Minutes:

    Witnesses:

    Paul Mudd, XPS

     

    Key points raised during the discussion:

     

    1. The representative from XPS introduced the item and provided a summary of its content. Members noted that an early version of the report had been published and an updated report is attached to these minutes as appendix 1. The following points were noted:
      1. that XPS had recently received an AAF accreditation.
      2. details regarding system developments around the implementation of the Macleod Remedy.
      3. details related to recruitment.
      4. in regard to Conditional Data Testing, Scheme Specific data testing tools had been purchased and training sessions are commencing on this new software from 25th April 2024. This training should allow XPS to identify data gaps and this will be fed into the dashboard readiness programme.
      5. details related to Member Self-Service outlined in the published report and attached appendix. The representative from XPS made a suggestion to improve the link to the self-service area on the SharePoint site.
      6. Members noted data related to the completed cases overview as outlined within the report. The representative from XPS stated that XPS were focused on improving the percentage of completed cases. The Chairman asked for detail on data included within the ‘general’ section within the tables under Completed Cases by Month. The representative from XPS stated that he understood the Board’s confusion on what was included under the ‘general’ section and would seek more information to be shared with the Board and the Pensions Team. A Member of the Board stated that he was aware of members of the pension scheme who had not received their pension forecast figures on time and further stated that members of the scheme were frustrated with the lack of information. The Chairman requested the detail be shared with XPS allowing an investigation. Following further discussion, it was agreed that it would be beneficial for XPS and the Pension Team to liaise further in order to better understand each other’s processes. 

     

    Actions/ further information to be provided:

     

    A3/24 - A Member of the Board stated that he was aware of members of the pension scheme who had not received their pension forecast figures on time and further stated that members of the scheme were frustrated with the lack of information. The Chairman requested the detail be shared with XPS allowing an investigation.

     

    A4/24 – The Chairman asked for detail on data included within the ‘general’ section within the tables under Completed Cases by Month. The representative from XPS would seek more information to be shared with the Board and the Pensions Team.

     

    A5/24 - it was agreed that it would be beneficial for XPS and the Pension Team to liaise further in order to better understand each other’s processes. 

     

    Resolved:

     

    The Board noted the report.

     

     

20/24

FIRE BULLETINS pdf icon PDF 241 KB

21/24

RISK REGISTERS pdf icon PDF 140 KB

22/24

DATE OF THE NEXT MEETING

    The next meeting will be on 25 July 2024

    Additional documents:

    Minutes:

    The Board noted that the date of the next meeting was 25 July 2024.