Agenda item

Report of the Director of People Services.

4.1       Joanne Meagher (Head of Operational People Services) presented the report and confirmed that she was satisfied with progress and Surrey County Council (SCC) in particular had improved its performance. The Board heard that the Annual Benefit Statements had been sent out before the 31 August deadline, even though SCC had only received the relevant data from BT 2 weeks beforehand. SCC had also increased the number of staff, however performance would continue to be monitored. In respect of BT, Joanne Meagher advised that they still faced challenges, however, with the support of People Services, a monthly data interface was in place and things were moving in the right direction. Sarah Hay (Pensions and Payroll Adviser) added that BT had sent a report on automated leavers, however checks were being made before this went live.

4.2       During Members’ discussions, the Chairman commented that BT representatives had been in attendance at the last Pension Fund Committee meeting to answer questions. He asked whether problems experienced had led to any response from the Pensions Regulator. In noting that the Pension Fund Committee had endorsed the Pension Fund Strategy, the Chairman indicated his support for it too and sought further comments in respect of this. The Chairman also expressed an interest in the Board playing a role in respect of developing an Admissions Policy.

4.3       A Member welcomed the progress in improving pension administration performance, however concern was expressed that problems may arise again during re-organisation of City Council staff in some service areas and he sought views on whether BT and SCC would be able to able to cope effectively with this. He remarked that governance arrangements in respect of pooling were changing and he suggested there was a role for the Board to look into this in respect of the London Collective Investment Vehicle (CIV). Another Member asked how admitted bodies were valued, particularly as academies were underwritten by the Secretary of State.

4.4       In reply to issues raised by the Board, Joanne Meagher advised that the Pensions Regulator had not felt the need to raise questions with regard to the pension administration issues that had been experienced. With regard to changes to City Council staff, she advised that no more than 49 redundancies were expected and she did not think the changes would be too challenging for BT and SCC to cope with. Sarah Hay added that People Services was discussing with the service areas affected about arrangements on this matter and the automated leavers file would help in this respect once it went live.

4.5       Peter Worth (Interim Tri-Borough Director of Treasury and Pensions) stated that the Pension Administration Strategy sought to address management of liabilities and ensure the right people were paid at the right time. In respect of governance of pooling, concerns were being addressed over the potential loss of control over monitoring of fund managers for individual local authorities. In respect of the London CIV, this included 32 relatively small funds and a structural review would have been desirable. Peter Worth concurred that the Board could look into the issue of an Admissions Policy and it was important that one was in place. He advised that academies, which initially had been classified as admitted bodies in a Fund, were now classified as scheduled bodies.