Cornwall and Isles of Scilly Fire and Rescue Service Local Pension Board - 24 July 2025

The meeting opened with a motion moved by Anthony Bartlett and seconded by Mark Grenfell to elect Victoria Wallens‑Hancock as Chairman of the Cornwall Fire and Rescue Service Local Pension Board. The motion was carried on a show of hands, and Ms Wallens‑Hancock assumed the chair, thanking members for her election. A subsequent motion, also moved by Anthony Bartlett and seconded by Mark Grenfell, resolved that the minutes of the 6 May 2025 meeting were correctly recorded and should be signed by the Chairman, subject to a correction of officer titles. No declarations of interest were made.

The Pension Benefits Manager presented the Business Update report and accompanying appendices, addressing several items raised by members. Guidance on Unauthorised Payment Charge calculations had now been issued by HMRC and the Local Government Association, allowing previously held cases to be processed. The manager also reported that 92 deferred members who had left the scheme and were affected by the Age Discrimination remedy, as well as a group who elected to purchase membership under RDS1, had been contacted and informed of their status.

Complaints from firefighters who were excluded from the Matthews Second Options Exercise—based on a Human Resources spreadsheet indicating they had been written to but did not respond—were addressed. Those individuals were subsequently written to and offered inclusion in the second Matthews Exercise, aligning the board’s handling with policies used by other local authorities. The manager further noted that the Local Government Association’s consultation on extending the Second Options Exercise deadline is expected to result in a minimum 12‑month extension from the date of communication to fire and rescue authorities. The board acknowledged the complexity of the process, limited resources, and the need to thank scheme members for their patience.

Finally, the board agreed to arrange a dashboard demonstration at the next meeting, recognizing that the new tool could affect the workload of the Fire Pensions Team, particularly if many partial matches required manual verification. A data‑cleansing exercise will be undertaken before the dashboard is made public to minimise such impacts. The meeting concluded with a motion, moved by Anthony Bartlett and seconded by Stephen Miles, to note the report; this motion was resolved.