Apologies were noted as above.

None.

To determine whether there are any additional items of business which by reason of special circumstances the Chair is of the opinion should be considered at the meeting;  the reason(s) for such urgency to be stated.

The Chair reported receipt of two urgent items entitled:

i)            Minutes of the Annual Authority meeting held on 14 June 2012.

ii)           Minutes of the Ordinary Authority meeting held on 14 June 2012. 

RESOLVED – That the Authority agrees to consider the urgent items at 6a and 6b on today’s agenda.

RESOLVED – That all agenda items be considered in the presence of the public and press.

None.

Members welcomed Steve Pick, the newly appointed Clerk and Treasurer to his first meeting of the Authority. 

Councillor Wraith commented that following the retirement of several members of staff, it would be beneficial for Members to receive a paper identifying current officer contact details.  Members welcomed this suggestion. 

RESOLVED –

i)            That the minutes of the Authority meeting held on 26 July 2012 be agreed and signed by the Chair as a correct record.

ii)           That an updated officer contact list be circulated to Members of the Authority.

RESOLVED – That the minutes of the Annual Authority meeting held on 14 June 2012 be agreed and signed by the Chair as a correct record. 

RESOLVED – That the minutes of the Ordinary Authority meeting held on 14 June 2012 be agreed and signed by the Chair as a correct record. 

Councillor Wraith referred to minute 11 of the Corporate Planning and Governance Board held on 26 July 2012, enquiring if separate letters to the Chief Executives at Sheffield CC, Barnsley MBC and Doncaster MBC had been sent drawing their attention to the issues which needed to be addressed regarding their performance data flows. 

The Head of Pensions Administration informed Members that meetings with all district officers had taken place following the July meeting to address this issue.  However, due to an oversight, letters had not been sent to the separate Chief Executives. 

Members expressed their disappointment that the action had not yet been carried out.  The Authority requested the Clerk and Treasurer to issue the letters as a matter of urgency. 

RESOLVED –

i)            That the minutes of the Corporate Planning and Governance Board held on 26 July 2012 be received. 

ii)           That separate letters be sent to the Chief Executives at Sheffield CC, Barnsley MBC and Doncaster MBC as a matter of urgency to make them aware of the data flow issues that need addressing.

Members considered the Authority’s Work Programme, highlighting that no training and development session had been arranged to take place at today’s meeting. 

The officer responsible for Member training and development was currently on long-term sickness absence.  An outline programme for training would be presented to the November Authority meeting.

Members were reminded that a treasury management training session had been arranged to take place on Wednesday 21 November 2012, commencing at 10:30 am at the Offices of the Joint Secretariat. 

RESOLVED –

i)            That the contents of the Work Programme now submitted be noted.

ii)           That an outline programme for training and development be made available at the November Authority meeting.

The Head of Pensions Administration presented a report setting out a snapshot of performance results for Quarter 1 of 2012/13. 

Members noted that the ‘Best’ performance in Quarter 1 related to two areas, namely, the online Pensions Forecast Survey which had a target of 100% on schedule with a result of 96.1% of Members been satisfied.  The second area related to Transactions with Members. 13,275 cases had been dealt with during Quarter 1, of which 99.8% been on target.  It was noted that case numbers were down on the previous Quarter. 

In relation to Strategic Objective 5 ‘Pensions Planning’ it was noted that seven new employers had registered for EPIC, bringing the total of registered employers to 136 (75%).  62% of registered employers had submitted a change via EPIC. 

Members commented that this result was disappointing and requested the Authority to set a date when they would no longer accept paper based changes from employers and only accept these via the EPIC system.

The Head of Pensions Administration informed the Authority that internal investigations were taking place as to why employers had chosen not to submit change requests via EPIC. It was noted that a report would be brought back to the Authority when analysis had taken place, along with a suggested date when the Authority would only accept data via the EPIC system.

Members were pleased to note that 577 Advisory Sessions had been held during Quarter 1, along with no complaints been received.

During Quarter 1, 11 new employers (9 Academies and 2 Community Admission Bodies) had joined the Fund.  There had been 1 employer termination.

RESOLVED –

i)            That the report be noted.

ii)           That a report be submitted to a future meeting setting out the analysis as to why employers had chosen not to submit change data via EPIC, along with a suggested date when the Authority would no longer accept paper based changes from employers.  

The Chair reported upon proceedings of the Investment Board held on 20 September 2012.  The Board had welcomed the two new Investment Advisors and thanked the out-going Investment Advisors for their work on-behalf of the Fund. 

Members had received a detailed presentation form WM Company which looked at the industry as a whole, together with the work achieved by other local authority pension funds during the year to give context and then looked at the Fund’s performance. 

RESOLVED – That the update be noted.

The Head of Pensions Administration provided Members with an update in relation to the LGPS Reform proposals. 

The Head of Pensions Administration had hoped that in accordance with the timetable, Members would have been possibly looking at the draft regulations today and the headline proposals.  However, due to CLG/LGA slippages it was anticipated that the Draft Regulations would now be available around late December 2012, with possible Regulations coming into force around April/May 2013. 

In order to inform scheme members of the significant changes to the scheme, the Authority had carried out a number of presentations for a number of employers including the districts, which had been well attended.  

RESOLVED – That the update be noted.  

A report of the Head of Pensions Administration was submitted requesting the Authority to agree a Policy for the exercise of discretions on behalf of former fund employers who no longer function as a scheme employer.

RESOLVED – That the Authority agrees to adopt SYPA staff discretionary polices for scheme members of employers who no longer function as a scheme employer. 

A report of the Clerk and Treasurer was submitted to inform Members that the Government had published the above Bill.

The Government had published the Public Service Pensions Bill in September 2012, which covered all of the main UK public sector pension schemes, including the Local Government Pension Scheme (LGPS) and a number of smaller ones.  The Bill included provision to be based upon career average earnings rather than defined benefit final salary schemes, as present, and would link pension ages under the schemes to State Pension Age.  The Bill also introduced measures for cost sharing between employers and members. 

The Fund Director commented that the Bill was sponsored by HM Treasury and had been clearly written with the unfunded schemes in mind.  The Bill introduced a role for the Pensions Regulator which would be new to the LGPS and this might include the power to question and scrutinise actuarial assumptions and valuations and appoint a representative to sit on the administering entity.  

The Bill was an enabling Bill and detailed Regulations would still need to be issued by the sponsoring department (CLG).

RESOLVED – That the report be noted.