To consider the report and adopt the new policies.
Decision:
DECISION:
To accept the
report
To approve the
Governance Policy Statement subject to including the following amendments
·
To add a
paragraph highlighting the powers delegated by the Council to the Wales Pension
Partnership
·
To amend sentence 4 (Main responsibilities
of the Committee) to note To make some
decisions in the context of administrating pensions, in exceptions e.g.,
appeals
·
To
update the responsibilities of the Chief Finance Officer to highlight the
interim arrangements for the period from 01/01/22
·
To add a note highlighting the training
requirements of the Pensions Committee members (as has already been highlighted
for Pension Board members)
·
To continue with the statement 'partly
comply' while reviewing the statement if there are changes to the
management procedure
Minutes:
Submitted - the report of the Pensions Manager, highlighting the requirement for the Fund to publish a Governance and Compliance Statement under Regulation 55 of the Local Government Pension Scheme Regulations 2013 (as amended) and to review that
statement on an ongoing basis.
The purpose of the statement
is to set out the Fund's Governance Structure, the scheme of delegation, and the terms of reference for its
Governing Bodies, the Pensions
Committee and the Local Pension Board.
He stated that the current statement had been in force
since 2008 and that the service had been reviewing and updating the statement in preparation
for the Scheme Advisory Board's Good Governance Project that would come
into force in April 2022. He explained that the main changes included providing more information on the functions and responsibilities of pension fund staff and also introducing
a new part to the policy in relation
to the role and responsibilities of the Pension Board. It was reported that the Statement had been submitted to the Pension Board in
July 2021 and that the Board had made observations.
Members thanked the officer for the report, and agreed with
the requirement to comply with the Regulations and report on
the current situation.
During the ensuing discussion, the following observations were made by members:
·
That information should be included about the Wales Pension Partnership, considering that they were
responsible for the Gwynedd
Fund's activity.
·
That the responsibilities
of the Head of Finance needed
to be updated.
·
That the word 'some' in the sentence
'make some decisions in the context of administrating pensions' was vague - there was a need to use wording that
explained this better.
·
That reference was made to training for Pension Board
members, but not for the Pensions Committee
In response to the observations that the wording 'broadly compliant' was an ambiguous statement,
it was noted that the current structure did not allow for full
compliance. It was reiterated
that the Wales Pension Partnership had considered the situation, and reported that it was possible to revisit the structure just before the 2022 Election, as well
as the likely introduction
of new regulations. It was suggested that the wording 'broadly compliant' should be kept, and for
it to be reviewed if any changes occurred
RESOLVED:
To accept the report
To approve the Governance Policy Statement subject to including the following amendments
·
To add
a paragraph highlighting
the powers delegated by the
Council to the Wales Pension
Partnership
·
To amend
sentence 4 (Main responsibilities
of the Committee) to note To make some decisions in the context of administrating pensions, in exceptions e.g. appeals
·
To update
the responsibilities of the Chief
Finance Officer to highlight
the interim arrangements for
the period from 01/01/22
·
To add
a note highlighting the training requirements of the Pensions Committee members (as has already been highlighted
for Pension Board members)
·
To continue
with the statement 'broadly compliant' and review the statement if changes
are made to the structure of the regulatory procedure
Supporting documents: