Agenda item

The Finance & Systems Manager (Pensions) presented the financial report. The total variance for the year had been £85,000 under budget. The Committee was asked to approve an addition to the list of discretions in respect of “payments for persons incapable of managing their affairs”, as set out in paragraph 10.2 of the covering report.

The Pensions Manager presented the performance report. Graph 2 on page 267 showed the growth in hits on the Fund’s website, perhaps reflecting the high media profile of public sector pensions. As reported in section 7 of the report, there had been a fall in the number of opt-outs, which may have been helped by the introduction of the 50/50 option. The APF had been included in a shortlist of 4 organisations nominated for the national Best Pensions Administration Award, sponsored by Financial News. APF was the only LGPS fund on the shortlist and had been second runner-up. Members congratulated the Pensions Administration team on this achievement.

The Committee applied the public interest test to the information contained in Appendix 7 to the report and passed the following resolution with one Member voting against:

Having been satisfied that the public interest would be better served by not disclosing relevant information, the Committee RESOLVES, in accordance with the provisions of section 100(A)(4) of the Local Government Act 1972 (“the Act”), that the public be excluded from the meeting during the discussion of Appendix 7 of the report for this item because of the likely disclosure of exempt information as defined in paragraph 3 of Part 1 of Schedule 12A of the Act as amended.

Following discussion of Appendix 7t, the Committee returned to open session.

RESOLVED

1. To approve the addition to the list of Fund Discretions in respect of “Payments for persons incapable of managing their affairs”.

To note the expenditure for administration the Stewardship Report on performance and management expenses incurred for the 12 months and Performance Indicators and Customer Satisfaction Feedback for the 2 months to 31 March 2012.