BCH Police Pension Board minutes 13 December 2021

Part 2 closed confidential. Not for publication under the provisions of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 and in agreement with the Meetings and Minutes Procedure agreed by the Strategic Management Board on 3 March 2009

Attendees

• Stuart Goodwin (SG) – Chair - Head of Finance, Bedfordshire
• James Cook (JC) - Deputy chair - Director of Resources, Hertfordshire
• Jackie Ingle (JI) - Head of BCH Pension and Payroll
• T/ACC Dan Vajzovic (DV) - CPOSA and Superintendents Association BCH representative, Cambridgeshire
• Sergeant Alan Wollaston (AW) - Police Federation BCH representative, Hertfordshire
• Paul Mudd (PM) - XPS outsourced BCH pension administrators
• Anthony Laud (AL) - NARPO BCH representative, Cambridgeshire
• Rebecca Weston (RW) - ESO, Hertfordshire Executive Support (minutes)

Apologies

• Afzal Chowdhury (AC) - Head of Legal Services, Hertfordshire
• Colin Connolly (CC) - Head of Corporate Communications, Hertfordshire
• Karen Morgan (KM) - Hertfordshire (but not a member)
• Superintendent Clare Smith (CS) - substitute Superintendents Association BCH representative, Hertfordshire
• Superintendent Jon Hutchinson (JH) - substitute Superintendents Association BCH representative, Cambridgeshire

1.Welcome and apologies

SG welcomed attendees to the meeting and apologies were noted.

2. Approval of minutes and actions – 27 September 2021

The minutes of the previous meeting were approved. Actions were reviewed and the action tracker updated accordingly.  

3. Conflict of interest – declaration and registry

No conflicts of interest were raised. 

4. Remedy update

SG noted that a recent NPCC Remedy update has been circulated to all members of the board.

JI provided the following update:

• JI attends regular NPCC Communications Board meetings – the most major update to come from this meeting is around the HO withdrawing Immediate Detriment (ID) guidance.

• BCH has not implemented ID due to the complexities and risks involved. The frustration from Federation/Supt Association and for officers is well understood.

• The next step is for legislation to be updated. In the meantime, the GAD modeller and scenarios that GAD/NPCC have developed are expected, once these are received, they will be circulated to officers which may assist in answering some of the questions officers have.

• JI highlighted that the current pension trap issue is on-going, this refers to the care scheme and legacy schemes contradicting themselves with regards to pension withdrawal age. DV advised that Staff Associations have been in correspondence with the Home Secretary to raise issues with the way pension is being managed and put forward proposals. The Policing Minister has since asked members to evidence how moral is being effected and members are being encouraged to write directly to the Policing Minister.

• Following discussion on the recent NPCC Remedy update circulated to board members, it was felt a full session with the NPCC Pensions Lead at this meeting wouldn’t be required at this stage. JI confirmed that weekly meetings are held with the NPCC Pensions Lead and that should further remedy updates become available JI will circulate to board members.

5. GMP reconciliation report

PM advised that the final reconciliation position is expected to be arrived at by end of the 21/22 financial year. The project will then move to the rectification phase which will involve writing out to scheme members to advise on under/over payment values and how that affects benefits. The project team will then seek a policy decision from forces on how payments will be treated.

6. XPS update report

PM talked through the XPS update report. The following was noted:

• Membership statistics – tapering of members out of legacy schemes and into 2015 scheme continues, which is reflected within the active member statistics.

• Data scoring – various options have been considered to test data and the decision made that this will be completed in house. It is anticipated that XPS will have built and tested all 22 conditional data items by the next quarterly report. 

• Member self-service – XPS have recently tested a bulk activation key as a means to encourage active, deferred and pensioner members to access self-service. This has seen positive results with two test clients. XPS can write out to members on forces behalf sharing a time limited activation token and URL to help members online. It was agreed that this would be beneficial for all, and PM agreed to explore cost sharing options.

• SLA overview - GH updated on failures within the quarter, noting that there was nothing underlying with regards to service to report.

Action – XPS to send a quote for each force to JI in relation to XPS facilitating the use of a bulk activation key as a means to encourage active, deferred and pensioner members to access member self-service, on behalf of forces.

7. Risk register

JI advised that there has been no change to the red risks regarding McCloud transitional arrangements.

JI agreed to update the risk regarding the PID, which is still being worked through following a request to change the wording and also in relation to the ID element which won’t be signed following the withdrawal of HO guidance.

PM advised that the revised PID should be circulated by the end of this week.

Action - JI to update McCloud risks (11, 11a, 13 and 13a) to reflect the current position with regards to the PID and Immediate Detriment.

There were no further changes to report.

8. Confirmed 2022 meeting dates

The confirmed meeting dates were noted by the board.

9. Any other business

GAD modeller tool

• Following query by DV, JI updated members on the modelling tool which has been produced by GAD in consultation with NPCC and is currently in the user testing phase. The tool is being hosted by XPS and the Pensions Knowledge Hub and is expected to be available to officers by the end of December. There was discussion on the different scenarios whereby officers will be able to see if they take their pension at given points in time, based on remedy being applied what the differences would be, the idea being also to show officers the benefits between CARE and legacy. Ji confirmed that comms will go out with links to access via XPS and knowledge hub.

Deputy Chair

SG advised that in line with the BCH Police Pension Board TOR there is a requirement for the deputy chair to be a member representative rather than an employer representative. A volunteer is sought from the member side to take on this role.

Action – Member Representatives: In line with the BCH Police Pension Board TOR there is a requirement for the deputy chair to be a member representative rather than an employer representative. A volunteer is sought from the member side to take on this role.

Date of next meeting: Monday 7 March 2022, 10.30am via MS Teams