Agenda and minutes

Received from Maggie Elliot.

If you have a Disclosable Pecuniary Interest* in an item of business:

         if it is not yet on the council’s register, you must declare both the existence and details of it at the start of the meeting or when it becomes apparent;

         you may choose to declare a Disclosable Pecuniary Interest that is already in the register in the interests of openness and transparency. 

In both the above cases, you must leave the room without participating in discussion of the item.

If you have a personal interest in an item of business and you intend to speak or vote on the item you must declare both the existence and details of it at the start of the meeting or when it becomes apparent but you may participate in the discussion and vote on the item.

*(a)      Employment, etc - Any employment, office, trade, profession or vocation carried on for profit or gain.

(b)        Sponsorship - Any payment or other financial benefit in respect of your expenses in carrying out duties as a member, or of your election; including from a trade union.

(c)        Contracts - Any current contract for goods, services or works, between you or your partner (or a body in which one of you has a beneficial interest) and the council.

(d)        Land - Any beneficial interest in land which is within the council’s area.

(e)        Licences- Any licence to occupy land in the council’s area for a month or longer.

(f)        Corporate tenancies - Any tenancy between the council and a body in which you or your partner have a beneficial interest.

 (g) Securities - Any beneficial interest in securities of a body which has a place of business or land in the council’s area, if the total nominal value of the securities exceeds £25,000 or one hundredth of the total issued share capital of that body or of any one class of its issued share capital. 

This applies to all members present at the meeting.

None.

RESOLVED:

That the minutes of the Board meeting held on 14 September 2015 be confirmed as a correct record and the Chair be authorised to sign them.

Matter arising:

Minute 6 – Role/undertaking – discussion item – It was noted that the Pension Fund accounts were audited separately from the Council’s accounts. KPMG would be invited to attend the September Board meeting. It was also noted that Internal Audit could be invited to a future meeting.

Steve Rogers, Pensions Manager, introduced his report, noting that the key performance indicators in paragraph 3.2 were similar to those reported to the last meeting. There had been a rise in the number of pension estimates to achieve, as the Council had recently made some staff redundancies..

RESOLVED:

That the performance against key performance indicators for the period from

1 August 2015 to 29 February 2016, including statistics regarding the internal dispute resolution procedure, complaints and compliments, as detailed in the report of the Assistant Chief Executive – Governance and Human Resources, be noted.

Steve Rogers, Pensions Manager, introduced his report. Referring to practice in other boroughs, detailed in Appendix 1 of the report, he wished to add that Hackney Council had no abatement, unless a person had compensatory added years. He noted that there were currently 35 to 40 pension recipients being monitored by Islington Pension Team to ensure that abatement levels were not reached.

RESOLVED:

That the Audit Committee be requested to amend the current policy to cease abatement of pensions.

Joana Marfoh directed members to paragraphs 3.4 and 3.5  of the report, which set  out proposed foci for the Board’s work plan during the year. She suggested that the reports considered by the Pensions Sub-Committee, including the quarterly performance reports, all of which were supplied to members of the Board, would assist Board members in carrying our its responsibilities to the scheme manager, the Pensions Sub-Committee in Islington’s case.

It was agreed that the Pensions Communications Strategy should be submitted to the Board for consideration.

It was noted that newsletters to pensioners were published on Islington’s website, though the page needed to be updated.

RESOLVED:

(a)  That the following items (from paragraph 3.4 of the report) form the foci of the Board’s work plan this year:

·         (a) Its own training, knowledge and understanding

·         (e) Reviewing fund risks and internal systems and controls

·         (c) Employer and member communications

·         (d) Reporting regulatory breaches

(b)  That, in addition to the items in resolution (a) above, internal audit and a risk register be considered.

(c)  That the Pensions Communications Strategy be submitted to the Board for consideration.

(d)  That Board members be sent information on their fiduciary duties and responsibilities.

(e)  That it be noted that training on the triennial actuarial valuation would take place in September 2016.

RESOLVED:

(a)  That the “Draft Breaches of the law - Policy Guidelines and Procedure for Islington Council Local Pension Board”, attached as an appendix to the report of the Corporate Director of Finance and Resources, be approved.

(b)  That the Policy be reviewed annually.

Members of the Board were encouraged to complete the “Islington Knowledge and Training Policy“ as soon as possible and to then forward the completed version to Joana Marfoh.

The Chair advised members that there had been a change to  the scheduled date of

6 September 2016 for the next meeting of the Board, which was to be re-arranged. Members were asked to let the Chair know of any dates in the first three weeks of September 2016 when they would not be able to attend a Board meeting.

Members would be advised as soon as possible of the new date for the September meeting.