Agenda item

This report sets out a summary of the annual review of the governance arrangements for the Pension Board. It also provides an overview of the annual governance review undertaken by Committee in June.

The Governance & Risk Advisor introduced this report to the Board. She referred to Appendix 1 – Annual review of Pension Board Governance and said that it was good to see that the majority of the table was green.

She asked for member’s assistance in resolving those that had been identified as amber or red and highlighted the areas of Declarations of Interest forms and Training undertaken as matters to be completed.

She stated that there had been no changes to the Board’s Terms of Reference (Appendix 2) and that Appendices 3 – 8 had been approved by the Committee earlier in the year.

Alison Wyatt asked if the Scheme of Delegations was benchmarked against those of any other Local Authorities.

The Governance & Risk Advisor replied that it was not. She added that it is agreed by the Senior Management Team with this review taking place every year and then audited every 2 – 3 years.

The Head of Pensions said that he had compared the scheme with some within the private sector and said that they were broadly similar.

The Director, One West added that the scheme was in line with the Council’s general principles and has approval from both the Monitoring Officer and Section 151 Officer.

The Pensions Operation Manager assured the Board that various levels of checking do take place as part of the scheme.

The Member Services Manager explained that within the applications that are used as part of their work there are set levels so that only officers of a certain position can carry out such duties.

The Board RESOLVED to note the report.