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Issue - meetings

Constitution of the Pension Fund Committee

Meeting: 06/09/2019 - Pension Fund Committee (Item 57)

57 Constitution of the Pension Fund Committee pdf icon PDF 217 KB

11:35

 

This report provides further information on the options for changing the constitution of the Pension Fund Committee to ensure all members have the relevant skills and knowledge to undertake the responsibilities of the role.

 

The Committee is RECOMMENDED to note the content of the report and:

 

(a)         Ask Officers to draw up a Training Policy consistent with the proposals contained in the report and summarised in paragraph 18 above;

(b)         Agree to amend their Governance Policy to mandate all Members of the Committee to complete training in line with the Training Policy;

(c)         Determine their approach to substitutions, being either:

i.     No substitutions allowed or

ii.    Only named substitutes allowed where they have completed training in line with the Training Policy; and

(d)         Recommend Council via the Audit and Governance Committee to make the appropriate changes to the Terms of Reference and Constitution to formalise the new governance arrangements.

 

Decision:

 

Agreed.

 

Agreed.

 

(c)(i) Agreed by 6 votes to 4.

 

Agreed.

 

(d)     ask Officers in consultation with the Chairman, Deputy Chairman and spokesperson to amend their Governance Policy/Terms of Ref  to ensure that the independence and impartiality of the Pension Fund Committee Members is assured.

 

 

Minutes:

At its June 2019 meeting, the Committee had reviewed their previous decision to amend its Governance Policy to require all Committee Members to participate in a training programme to ensure the Committee had the necessary skills and knowledge to fulfil its responsibilities, and to remove the right for substitute members.  These changes to the Policy had not been presented to full Council for endorsement and had therefore not been implemented.

 

The Committee wanted a further report to cover some of the practical implications including what would be the minimum level of training prescribed, how long would new members be given to complete the training and were there options to allow named substitutes.   The Committee had before them a report which provided further information on the options for changing the constitution of the Pension Fund Committee to ensure all members had the relevant skills and knowledge to undertake the responsibilities of the role.

 

Mr Collins reported that there was growing pressure with the publication of two national reports for members of the Pension fund Committee to have the same training requirement of that of members of the Local Pension Board.  This requirement could be filled in 2 ways, the 3-day LGA fundamentals Training Course or the on-line training through the Pension Regulators website, which consisted of 5 core modules. Mr Collins sought the Committee’s view on what training they would like to see and in relation to that, whether or not they thought there should be named substitutes or no substitutes at all due to the training requirements.

 

Following debate, in which there were differing views as to whether there should be named substitutes or not, the committee put the question to the vote, and it was:

 

RESOLVED:  to note the content of the report and:

 

(a)         ask Officers to draw up a Training Policy consistent with the proposals contained in the report and summarised in paragraph 18 above;

(b)         agree to amend their Governance Policy to mandate all Members of the Committee to complete training in line with the Training Policy;

(c)          (by 6 votes to 4) determine its approach to substitutions as being no substitutions allowed;

(d)         recommend Council via the Audit & Governance Committee to make the appropriate changes to the Terms of Reference and Constitution to formalise the new governance arrangements;

(e)       ask Officers in consultation with the Chairman, Deputy Chairman and spokesperson to amend their Governance Policy/Terms of Reference to ensure that the independence and impartiality of the Pension Fund Committee Members is assured.