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Agenda and minutes

Contact: Mary Green  Telephone: 020 7527 3005

Items
No. Item

74.

Apologies for absence

Minutes:

None.

75.

Declaration of interests

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.

 

Minutes:

None.

76.

Minutes of the previous meeting pdf icon PDF 69 KB

Minutes:

RESOLVED:

That the minutes of the meeting held on 17June 2019 be confirmed as a correct record and the Chair be authorised to sign them.

77.

Pension administration performance pdf icon PDF 362 KB

Minutes:

In introducing his report, the Deputy Pensions Manager highlighted an amendment required to paragraph 3.3 of his report, by the substitution of the figure “90.86%” for the existing figure of “94.86%” in line 1.  The reduction in performance since the last quarter reflected the fact that staff in the Pensions Team had had to prioritise work on the Pension Fund valuation.

 

The Board noted the fluctuations in the numbers of members auto-enrolled into the Local Government Pension Sceme (LGPS) from 16.67% in February 2019, 27.85% in April 2019, 3.23% in May 2019 and 4.76% in July 2019. They also noted that, as at 31 July 2019, the Council employed 6648 staff (excluding teachers and public health officers), 813 of whom were not members of the LGPS. A large percentage of these worked in Islington Schools and People Services, where many staff worked casual or part-time hours.  A possible reason for this was that it simply was not practical for people on a lower salary to participate in the Scheme.

 

With a view to encouraging more members to join the LGPS and identifying the barriers in achieving this, Board members asked the Deputy Pensions Manager to provide a breakdown of part-time and full-time staff who were not in the LGPS for the next meeting.

 

RESOLVED:

(a) That the performance of the Pensions Administration Team against key indicators, for the period from 1 May to 31 July 2019, including information on complaints and internal disputes, as detailed in the report of the Interim Corporate Director of Resources, be noted.

(b) That the number and age profile of Islington employees who are not members of the LGPS, together with details of the Islington employees who auto-enrolled in to the Local Government Pensions Scheme during the relevant period, as detailed in the report, be noted.

(c) That the numbers of members auto-enrolled into the Local Government Pension Scheme, again as detailed in the report, be noted.

(d) That the Deputy Pensions Manager provide information in the administration report to the next meeting with numbers of part-time and full-time staff, on a salary of below £15k, 15k to 30k and 30 k and above, who were not enrolled in the LGPS.

 

78.

Draft Pension Annual Report 2018/19 pdf icon PDF 74 KB

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The Board noted George Sharkey’s verbal information of a climate change rally outside Islington Town Hall on 20 September at 12 noon, to which all were invited.

 

 

RESOLVED:

That the draft Pension Fund annual report, attached at Appendix 1 to the report of the Interim Corporate Director of Resources, including the 2018/19 Statement of Accounts, activities and performance, be approved for submission to the external auditors.

79.

Forward Plan pdf icon PDF 104 KB

Minutes:

Members of the Board discussed the availability of information to members of the Scheme, such as benefits to a partner in the event of a death in service and the length of time during which benefits could be made to dependents.  The Board wished to see how information could be easily accessible to members of the Scheme. The general consensus was that the ideal place for such information was the Pensions site on the Council’s website.

 

RESOLVED:

(a) That the contents of Appendix A to the report of the Interim Corporate Director of Resources, detailing proposed agenda items for future meetings, be approved.

(b) That the Deputy Pensions Manager submit a report to the next meeting of the Board detailing all the information currently available to members on the Pensions page of Islington’s website and proposals for future inclusions.

c)  That the latest LGA briefing on LGPS Community, appended to the report, be noted.