Agenda and draft minutes

The Chair will announce details of the arrangements in case of fire or other events that might require the meeting room or building’s evacuation.

(if any) – receive.

Members are invited to disclose any interest in any items on the agenda at this point of the meeting.

Members may still disclose any interest in an item at any time prior to the consideration of the matter.

To approve as correct the minutes of the meeting held on 22^nd September 2020 and authorise the Chair to sign them.

The minutes of the previous meeting held on 22nd September 2020 were agreed as a correct record and, due to COVID-19, will be signed by the Chairman at a later date.

Feedback was provided to cover pension committee meetings on the 1 October 2020, 12 November 2020 and 12 January 2021. It was noted that the Pensions Committee had admitted Harrison catering to the Pension Fund, had considered proposals to continue with the implementation of the Investment Strategy, received an regulation update regarding LGPS amendment to the McCloud underpin.

Report attached

The Board noted that Havering had received a green rating for the pension administration services.

ACTION POINT: Control objectives to use same headings as TPR Code of Practise

Report attached

It was noted by the Board that LPP had received 1 subject access request and that was being processed. It was also noted that no claims had been successful and the letters produced by LPP were to be signed off by Caroline.

Report attached

It was noted by the Board that the priority and timescale of the activities had been included, however some timescales had not been included as the completion is due to LPP interaction. T was noted that the year-end data was given a priority 3 due to the timescale with an input from LPP to be given. The Board then discussed the action plan and noted that the actions had either been covered or were included in the data improvement plan.

Reports attached

The Board were presented with the TPR code 14 compliance checklist and noted that some of the areas had been found to be amber due to no Havering specific documents being on the LPP website therefore they were having to be implemented into the main Havering website.

ACTION POINT: Board members to look at blue comments and sections D & E on pages 64-67 of the agenda pack

For discussion

The Board discussed the position and role of the Chairman and noted suggestions of an independent chair. It was noted that the budget was sufficient to cover the cost and the Board members agreed that an independent Chair would help the Board run more efficiently.

ACTION POINT: Caroline to research Newham’s process for getting an independent Chair

For discussion

The Board noted that the updated risk register incorporated all points raised by the Board in the previous year and was noted than all risks were green.

ACTION POINTS: Lillian to re-send Risk Register with updated colours and Board members to feed back any risks to be added.

Report attached

The Board noticed a typing error and noted that the LGPS regulations require a member who is made redundant over the age of 55, not 66, to take immediate, unreduced pension. It was noted the £95k exit cap which were implemented on 4^th November 2020.

Report attached

The Board noted that performance had stayed consistently high at around 100% and the layout of the report was standard across all clients but was agreed by members that it was not the preferred layout. It was agreed by the Board that the backlog needed to be reduced. It was noted that the time for a case on hold had reduced.

ACTION POINT: Caroline to research backlog and present finding to Board at next meetings.

Report attached

The Board noted that 71 leaver forms were missing and there were 1003 active users of MPO. It was also noted that an email address is not required to comply with GDPR.

Report attached

The Board noted the Communications Campaign

ACTION POINT: Members to feedback any points or concerns to Caroline.

Report attached

The Board noted the Local Pension Board report had gone to Pensions Committee and had been approved.