Issue - meetings

(i)       to approve the Council’s revised Employer Pension Discretions policy as attached at Appendix A, which details the Council’s declared policy on the specified pension discretions in respect of the Local Government Pension Scheme;

(ii)       to note the delegation of decisions in respect of application of certain of the specified discretions in Appendix A, to the appropriate Chief Officer, in consultation with the Chief Officer People and Organisational Development and the Chief Officer Finance, where it is indicated that individual cases will be considered on their merits or where a decision is required (unless the authoriser is specified); and

(iii)      to note the delegation of decisions in respect of application of other non-specified discretions to the Chief Executive or nominated deputy on a case-by-case basis.

The Committee had before it a report by the Director of Customer Services which sought approval for the Council’s revised Employer Pension Discretions Policy in respect of the Local Government Pension Scheme.

The report advised that the Local Government Pension Scheme (LGPS) Regulations contained a number of regulations over which the employer had discretion.   Following changes to the LGPS Regulations in 2018, all employers in the Scheme were required to review and update their Pension Discretions Policy, as held by the North-East Scotland Pension Fund.  The Policy outlined how the Council, as an employer of the Fund, would administer the LGPS in respect of application of the various discretions.

Members asked a number of questions in relation to the report.

The report recommended:-

that the Committee –

(a)      approve the Council’s revised Employer Pension Discretions policy as attached at Appendix A, which detailed the Council’s declared policy on the specified pension discretions in respect of the Local Government Pension Scheme;

(b)      note the delegation of decisions in respect of application of certain of the specified discretions in Appendix A, to the appropriate Chief Officer, in consultation with the Chief Officer - People and Organisational Development and the Chief Officer - Finance, where it was indicated that individual cases would be considered on their merits or where a decision was required (unless the authoriser was specified); and

(c)      note the delegation of decisions in respect of application of other non-specified discretions to the Chief Executive or nominated deputy on a case-by-case basis.

The Committee resolved:-

to approve the recommendations.