To receive any apologies for absence.

The Chairman and the Board introduced themselves.

No apologies for absence.

To receive any declarations of interest.

No declarations of interests.

Before the meeting commenced Alan Cross asked for a minute’s silence in memory of former Pension Board Chairman Tony Pettitt who had recently passed away (having recently resigned from the Board). Kevin Taylor asked that the Board Member’s and Officer’s gratitude for the work that Tony did whilst a member of the Pension Board be formally minuted.

To approve the Part I minutes of the meeting held on 17 February 2022.

RESOLVED UNANIMOUSLY: That the minutes of the meeting held on 17^th February be approved as a correct record.

To note contents of the report.

Before starting discussion on the first agenda item, due to the new municipal year (2022/23), the Board held a vote on the Chairman and Vice Chairman, in which they agreed for Alan Cross and Arthur Parker to continue as Chairman and Vice-Chairman respectively.

UNANIMOUSLY RESOLVED: That Alan Cross continue as Chairman and Arthur Parker continue as Vice-Chairman for the Berkshire Pension Board.

Kevin Taylor, Pension Services Manager, introduced the item. An independent governance review took place in 2020 which sought to ensure the Fund’s governance was up to date. Concurrently, RBWM’s constitution was analysed, where the terms of reference were listed, with the objective to update the Constitution once the agenda item had been discussed.

There were five officers’ recommendations.

·       The first one was to consider the two vacancies on the Board. Kevin Taylor pointed out that one option was for the current substitute members to become full members of the Board, with Kieron Finlay as the employer representative and Julian Curzon as the scheme member representative.

·       The second recommendation was to review and approve the updated code of conduct at Appendix 2 to the report.

·       Thirdly, Board Members were asked to consider and discuss proposed Constitutional changes to allow for an increase in Board membership numbers to 8 with Trades Union representation being included.

·       Fourthly, Board members were asked to consider the terms of reference set out in Appendix 1 of the report and consider whether to recommend these to Full Council in order to update the Council’s Constitution.

·       Fifthly, that Pension Board members consider a proposal to complete the online Pensions Regulator’s Public Service Pensions tool kit every three years and that the knowledge and understanding framework be reviewed annually.

Alan Cross made some comments in reference to the report stating the Chairman would ensure an induction programme was organised for all new Board members, stating that it needed to be considered what this induction would consist of (and how this responsibility would be fulfilled).

On conflicts of interests, Alan Cross suggested it would be more appropriate if Board members complete a declaration of interests which was kept under review rather than complete a declaration of interests annually, pointing out that his interests, and presumably the interests of other Board members, do not normally change significantly over time.

Jeff Ford commented that he did not have access to the Part II agenda items and full minutes of the Berkshire Pension Fund Committee and believed that this should be accessible for the Pension Board. Damien Pantling, Head of Pension Fund, confirmed in principle that Board members should be able to access both part II papers of the Board and the Committee, given the Board’s role. With that said, Alan Cross said that the mechanics needed to be sorted out (by RBWM’s Committee Administration) to ensure accessibility.

Nikki Craig suggested that it would be best to check with the auditors first before amending the conflicts of interest as they often required interests to be declared annually regardless of change or  ...  view the full minutes text for item 346.

To receive verbal updates.

Kevin Taylor introduced the item. He stated there were 3 significant updates to be provided since the last Berkshire Pension Board meeting. He discussed the ‘Stronger Nudge to pensions guidance’ introduced by government to ensure that individuals were made aware of Pension Wise guidance as part of any application to take or transfer their defined contribution savings. The so called ‘nudge regulations’ first came into effect in 1st June 2022.

For the LGPS (Local Government Pension Scheme), the regulations applied to scheme members who were paying or transferring their AVCs (Additional Voluntary Contributions). This was because the ‘nudge regulations’ were more defined contribution schemes which were not necessarily as regulated compared to the public sector schemes. Therefore, certain processes had to be put in place whereby scheme members would be given the appropriate guidance and independent advice to ensure the decisions they would make were appropriate and to their benefit.

After Philip Boyton explained how the “nudge regulations” would be communicated to scheme members, Alan Cross asked if the communication would be proactive or responsive. Philip Boyton replied that Officers would be proactive in using periodical communications such as newsletters; but would also be reactive when dealing with individual members on their, for example, retirement benefits.

The next update was on statutory guidance on special severance payments. Kevin Taylor reminded the Board of the so-called pension cap regulations that were ultimately rescinded and advised that the guidance now issued by DLUHC now made it clear that pension strain costs do not form part of the definition of special severance payments when it comes to the circumstances under which a stain costs would statutorily become payable (redundancy, business efficiency, flexible retirement etc).

The final update was on recently released guidance on handling data subject access requests. The Local Government Association recently produced a collection of documents which assist the administering authority in its role in managing data, namely holding personal data clearly for present and historic scheme members. The documents, for example, provided guidance for handling those requests, templates for acknowledgement letters and response letters.

The Board noted the briefing.

To note the contents of the report.

Philip Boyton introduced the item, covering Quarter 1 (1^st January to 31^st March 2022). He took the report as having been read, drawing the Board’s attention to only the highlights of the report.

Philip Boyton informed the Board that monthly scheme member data continued to be regularly received through i-Connect from all on-boarded scheme employers. In the last quarter (October to December 2021), two further scheme employers, Glyn Learning Foundation and The Circle Trust, had been on-boarded, meaning a further 334 scheme member records were now covered by i-Connect.

Philip Boyton informed the Board that all four Key Performance Indicators (KPI) were healthy, and all showed the ‘Total’ number of cases processed, a value that was missing in respect of KPI ‘Deceased processed within 5 working days’ reported in the last quarter (October to December 2021).

In respect of ‘Special Projects’, Philip Boyton informed the Board that Officers continued to work successfully with Western Union Bureau Services (WUBS) in an effort to detect and prevent any fraudulent payments made to those 168 in payment scheme members receiving their monthly pension payment to an account in the country and currency of their residence. Letters setting out the action in payment scheme members must take have been sent with very few queries received in response. Philip Boyton reminded the Board that Officers will always take careful and considered action before suspending the monthly pension payments of those in payment scheme members who do not follow the instructions to provide photographic identification at their nearest WUBS Agency. An arrangement is in place with WUBS that they will report fortnightly to Officers with details of those in payment scheme members who have followed the instructions.

Finally, Philip Boyton updated the Board about Year End 2022. He explained the process had moved on considerably since the report was prepared with contribution returns received from all onboarded and non-onboarded i-Connect scheme employers. There were 21 scheme employers with queries outstanding but for those completed scheme employers Annual Benefit Statements were available to scheme members through the ‘my pension ONLINE’ service and the scheme member data cleansed for the Valuation using the Actuary’s LGPS Data Checker tool.

The Board noted the report.

To note the contents of the report.

Damien Pantling, Head of the Pension Fund, introduced the agenda item, giving a rough overview of each appendix of the report.

Alan Cross asked if the Pension Board could undertake the same training session that the Pension Fund Committee went through or an adaptation of it. Damien Pantling answered that the training was Committee focused, but he added that there would be an annual risk review which the Pension Board would be taking part in.

Kevin Taylor commented that the contents page needed to be formatted before the report was forwarded to the Pension Fund Committee.

The Board noted the report.

To note the report.

Damien Pantling introduced the agenda item. The report addressed two statutory policies which were due for their annual review by the Pension Fund Committee: the employer flexibilities policy and the employer contribution review policy.

The Board noted the report.

To note the contents of the report.

Damien Pantling introduced the agenda item by giving an overview of the report around the Pension Committee’s governance. There were policies and frameworks which were due for periodic review by the Committee:

·       Reporting breaches of the law,

·       Service level agreement document between the administering authority and the Fund,

·       Training framework and training log.

Arthur Parker commented that there were some words missing in the report. Damien Pantling stated it would be fixed for the Committee.

Alan Cross commented about reporting breaches in the law, pointing out the potential issue that the person who may be implicated could be the same person who everyone reports legal violations to.

The Board noted the report.

To note the contents of the report.

Damien Pantling introduced the agenda item by giving an overview of the report, mainly focusing on LPPI’s (Local Pensions Partnership Investments) engagement policy.

After Alan Cross explained some context to the Board, Damien Pantling then gave a verbal update and explanation on the responsible investment task-and-finish group, which sought to develop a responsible investment policy and position statement.

The Board noted the report.

To receive an update.

Damien Pantling gave a verbal update. He reported that all papers which were shown during the last Pension Board meeting in February 2022 went to the Pension Fund Committee meeting on 7^th March 2022. In addition, all recommendations were adopted.

The Board noted the update.

To discuss any other Part I items of business.

No additional business.

“That under Section 100(A)(4) of the Local Government Act 1972, the public be excluded from the remainder of the meeting whilst discussion takes place, on the grounds that they involve the likely disclosure of exempt information as defined in Paragraph 3 of part I of Schedule 12A of the Act."

RESOLVED UNANIMOUSLY: That under Section 100(A)(4) of the Local Government Act 1972, the public be excluded from the remainder of the meeting whilst discussion takes place on the grounds that they involve the likely disclosure of exempt information as defined in Paragraphs 1-7 of part I of Schedule 12A of the Act.

To approve the Part II minutes from the following meetings:

·       17 February 2022

·       18 November 2021

To receive a verbal update.

To receive a verbal update.

To discuss any other Part II items of business.