Issue - meetings

1.    The Committee considered the findings of the review.

2.    The Committee noted that officers would collate a separate action plan for areas of ongoing compliance and development.

3.    The Committee noted the officers will carry out further assessment during 2018 against this compliance checklist which would be reported back to the Committee and Pension Board.

            Alwyn Hughes (Pensions Finance Manager) and Kerry Robinson (Principal Pensions Officer, Employer Liaison Team) presented the TPR’s Code of Practice (COP).  Mr Hughes was conscious that this would be the first time most of the PFC would have seen the compliance checklist. He explained that, whilst it takes a lot of resources, it was proving beneficial as it highlighted areas in which the Fund can improve.

            Mr Hughes highlighted that some of the items in the checklist are best practice rather than regulatory but the checklist will be amended so that regulatory elements are highlighted.

            Mrs Robinson highlighted that Section 1.04 of the covering report showed an overview of where the Fund was compliant with the numbers in brackets showing the previous year’s results.

            Mr Hughes and Mrs Robinson then went through the summary dashboard commenting on many of the areas that were shown as partially or non-compliant.  It was noted that in some areas the Fund may choose to remain non-compliant e.g. training of new Pension Board members was carried out after appointment, rather than before which is what is suggested by the Code of Practice. The idea was to move to full compliance as soon as practicable in the areas identified as requiring action. 

            Mrs McWilliam highlighted that a statutory role of the Pension Board is to assist in assuring compliance with the Pension Regulator's requirements and so this will be on the next Pension Board agenda to look at in more detail and to develop an action plan.

RESOLVED:

1.    The Committee considered the findings of the review.

2.    The Committee noted that officers would collate a separate action plan for areas of ongoing compliance and development.

3.    The Committee noted the officers will carry out further assessment during 2018 against this compliance checklist which would be reported back to the Committee and Pension Board.