Apologies, welcomes, declarations of conflicts of interest
The Chair welcomed everybody to the meeting. No declarations had been received in advance or were made at the meeting.
Chair’s update
The Chair was delighted to report that the new Non-Executive Director appointments had been approved (subject to terms and conditions), and that Kirstin Baker had been reappointed.
CEO report
The Board received an update on the outcome of the Dalton and Barratt case.
Accommodation strategy: the agreement for lease on Telecom House had been signed and communications had subsequently been rolled out to staff. Board received an update on the status of the various project workstreams.
Regulations: updates to the timescales to DWP regulations for notifiable events, defined benefit (DB) funding code and the pensions dashboard were discussed. The Board was assured that the team’s escalation processes were working well.
Organisational restructure: this was largely in place, and the Board received updates from the directors of Strategy and Communications and Governance, Risk and Assurance.
Automatic enrolment Transformation Programme: the Board received an update on progress on the final steps of this programme, along with major essential pieces of work going forward. It was noted that the final processes with the outsourcing provider had now been moved following insourcing of bulk mail and migration of 1.5m call recordings.
Risks out of appetite (ROOA): the Board discussed updates received in the report, and TPR’s approach to ROOA.
Counter fraud: the Board agreed to the CEO’s request to delegate the Board level accountability for counter fraud to the General Counsel, to support the CEO as Accounting Officer in this area. It was noted that the General Counsel was not a full member of Board but attended each meeting.
Determination Panel (DP) annual update
The DP chair gave his annual update to the Board, which also looked at ways of increasing the interactions between the panel and the rest of the organisation, and the panel adding value, without compromising independence. It suggested options, which the Board felt were sensible. There was support for advisory options, but not for anything that might impinge on operational and / or executive territory.
Update on DB funding code
The paper took stock of the current position and progress to date. An upcoming meeting with the funding industry working group would provide an opportunity to update them and share next steps.
Draft annual report and accounts
The Board reviewed the first draft, which the Audit, Risk and Assurance Committee (ARAC) had not yet seen, but which had been through ExCo and seen by the National Audit Office. ARAC would review the draft in June and would provide a recommendation to the Board on the final version for signoff for their meeting the following day.
Corporate plan update 2022 to 2024 — draft publication review, with budget
The Board reviewed a draft of its corporate plan, which was due for publication towards the end of May and which would cover the remaining two years of the 21 to 24 period. The authors had tried to reflect saver outcomes throughout the document, including in the performance monitoring framework, so the document was more saver-centric than ever before. The Board agreed that, subject to a preamble and review of the outcome indicators wording, it was happy to delegate review and sign off the final version to the Chair and CEO.
The Board also agreed the budget.
Questions on papers to note
The Board noted the complaints annual report. The Head of Governance and Head of Risk and Assurance had been tasked with a review of the complaints process.
Any other business
The Board noted that this would be non-executive director Robert Herga’s last meeting before his term of office ended; they said goodbye and thanked him for his sterling contribution to the work of the Board over the years.