Why was I stopped from going to room GA-25 for a public meeting of Wirral Council’s Local Pension Board (about Merseyside Pension Fund)?

Why was I stopped from going to room GA-25 for a public meeting of Wirral Council’s Local Pension Board (about Merseyside Pension Fund)?

Why was I stopped from going to room GA-25 for a public meeting of Wirral Council’s Local Pension Board (about Merseyside Pension Fund)?

Local Pensions Board (Wirral Council) 27th June 2017 L Peter Wallach R John Raisin (Independent Chair)
Local Pensions Board (Wirral Council) 27th June 2017 L Peter Wallach R John Raisin (Independent Chair)

I’ll declare at the outset an interest, in that my father is paid a pension by the Merseyside Pension Fund administered by Wirral Council.

Around a year ago, I wrote about how Wirral Council employees barricaded a fire door with a bin to prevent the public exercising their legal right to attend a public meeting. The most senior Wirral Council employee involved in that fiasco was Joe Blott (in his capacity as Deputy Monitoring Officer).

Yesterday, there was a public meeting of Wirral Council”s Local Pension Board scheduled to start at noon. The Local Pension Board is part of the governance of the Merseyside Pension Fund that Wirral Council administer and has hundreds of thousands of people in the pension fund (mainly public sector workers) and a £multi-billion Pension Fund.

This time however the meeting wasn’t on Wirral Council premises, but on premises owned by Commerz Real Investmentgesellschaft mbH (a German company) as part of its Hausinvest Open Real Estate Fund, leased to Merseytravel, then hired out to Wirral Metropolitan Borough Council.

I am making an educated guess that either Commerz Real Investmentgesellschaft mbH contract out (or Merseytravel does) the reception staff at the building the public meeting was to be held in, which is done by I think Carlisle Security Services Limited (which is a subsidiary company of Carlisle Support Services Group Limited).

If you are confused by reading that so far, then so am I!

We arrived first at reception at Mann Island and they had been told we were coming to the meeting. So we were issued with visitors passes.

However we were told we couldn’t go in because no-one from Wirral Council was there yet.

Reception told us that we couldn’t go in (although they knew we were there for the meeting) until someone from Wirral Council told them it was ok for reception to allow us into the building to attend a public meeting. So we waited.

First to arrive was Pat Phillips (the Committee Clerk and point of contact for the meeting). Standing in front of reception we asked her to confirm we were there for the meeting. She said she would have to go ask someone (despite nobody else but us being there for the meeting).

So they let her through (and she didn’t come back as there was no-one else but her).

Then Joe Blott arrived, who is at Deputy Chief Executive level at Wirral Metropolitan Borough Council and therefore part of the political element of his job such as dealing with people like myself.

Again, Joe Blott insisted he could not tell reception staff at Mann Island that we could come in through the gate as it wasn’t a “Wirral Council building” and he needed to first consult with the Chair of the Local Pensions Board (who actually hadn’t arrived in the building yet).

However, reception staff let Joe Blott through too.

Reception staff then told us they couldn’t let us in because of “terrorism” training and that they had “orders”. They pointed it wasn’t a “public building”.

Apparently now terrorism is used as a reason to avoid legal responsibilities!

The public meeting was scheduled to start at noon and we were still there at reception when more people arrived for the meeting, Peter Wallach, John Raisin, Mike Hornby, Kerry Beirne, Donna Ridland, Pat Maloney and Roger Irvine to name but seven.

I also briefly talked around this time to the Chair of the Liverpool City Region Combined Authority Merseytravel Committee Cllr Liam Robinson about the problem.

Reception staff are then busy handing out visitors passes and bizarrely trying to determine when the Local Pensions Board plus myself and Leonora should be allowed through the gate on the ground floor to room GA-25.

Finally (at the third time of asking) we found a Wirral Council employee (Peter Wallach) who was willing to tell reception we were allowed into the building!

Eventually by the time we’re all let in, I come through the door to the meeting room (GA-25 on the ground floor) at about 11:59:30, most of the rest of the people behind me came in late.

Then of course, the room needs to be set up and surprisingly the lights turned on (as neither Joe Blott or Pat Phillips had turned the lights on). One Wirral Council officer introducing one of the reports arrived even later even though there was a delayed start to the meeting (which caused a further delay).

However allowing the press into the public meeting half a minute before its scheduled to start is not Wirral Council in my view complying with its legal responsibilities. Specifically reasonable facilities for the purposes of filming the meeting does not mean allow press in seconds before its supposed to start. In fact it’s in breach of their own agreed filming policy specifically paragraphs 1.6, 1.7, 2.3 and 5.1.

Common sense means letting the press in at least fifteen minutes before so that a safe space to film can be determined, a tripod put up, seating arranged, agendas and reports requested etc.

But I feel that since this legal requirement came into effect in August 2014 various parts of Wirral Council have tried to try my patience over it at various public meetings.

Delayed starts to meetings cost the public sector money in lost time.

Terrorism can not be used as an excuse to delay or prevent democracy happening or the press reporting. The legal right to attend public meetings of local councils has been in its current form since 1972 and in another form since 1960. It’s not new legislation!

Nearly every other meeting of Wirral Council’s committees has one of their solicitors present but this one does not!

This is sadly a recurring problem when attending to report and film public meetings at Mann Island. There have been public meetings that have started before we’re allowed in.

Merseytravel’s own Head of Internal Audit (Merseytravel lease room GA-25) has stated at a public meeting in 2014 that people should not talk to the press about whistleblowing concerns.

However who do the press blow the whistle to when there’s no point in blowing it internally? Write an article about it? Embarrass people into changing? Or does it just end up being like the film Groundhog Day with a public sector seemingly unable to stick to its own policy, the legislation and just full of excuses?

What it has shown me, that is of wider concern is that at Wirral Council some senior managers are frightened to make decisions. The culture of not making a decision, just in case it’s the wrong one or the manager may be criticised can be just as damaging to Wirral Council’s reputation as the myriad of other scandals (on subjects ranging from child protection, complaints about councillors, how requests for information are handled and so on and so on).

So below is footage of the Local Pensions Board which turned out to be an interesting meeting (albeit hard to hear due to the lack of microphones).

I had to skip ten minutes of checks to film it and had no chair to sit on (there was literally no time to get a chair before it started).

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Wirral Council’s Local Pensions Board (Merseyside Pension Fund) 27th June 2017 Part 1 of 2

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Wirral Council’s Local Pensions Board (Merseyside Pension Fund) 27th June 2017 Part 2 of 2

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What is a Pensions Board and can it exclude the press and public from its meetings?

What is a Pensions Board and can it exclude the press and public from its meetings?

What is a Pensions Board and can it exclude the press and public from its meetings?

                                                                   

Pensions Board meeting 13th October 2015 Foreground L to R Unknown, Patrick Moloney, Mike Hornby, Paul Wiggins, John Raisin (Chair), Anne Beauchamp Background L to R Unknown, Peter Wallach (Head of Pension Fund), Joe Blott (Strategic Director for Transformation and Resources)
Pensions Board meeting 13th October 2015 Foreground L to R Unknown, Patrick Moloney, Mike Hornby, Paul Wiggins, John Raisin (Chair), Anne Beauchamp Background L to R Unknown, Peter Wallach (Head of Pension Fund), Joe Blott (Strategic Director for Transformation and Resources)

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Video of the Local Pensions Board (Merseyside Pension Fund) meeting on the 12th October 2015

I attended my first meeting of Wirral Council’s Pensions Board today (although this is the second meeting of the Pensions Board). Wirral Council are the Administering Authority for the Merseyside Pension Fund.

Although the venue was listed as: Merseyside Pension Fund, 7th Floor, Castle Chambers, Liverpool L2 9SH, it was in fact held in a board room on the 4th floor at the same address.

This page on the Merseyside Pension Fund’s website states who make up the Pensions Board.

Mike Hornby (a former Wirral Council councillor for Greasby, Frankby & Irby ward) was there as a member of the the Pensions Board. He is one of the employer representatives representing Wirral Council.

Paul Wiggins (one of the Member (meaning Member of the Merseyside Pension Fund) representatives) was there to represent the pensioner members in the Merseyside Pension Fund. Also there was the Independent Chair John Raisin.

The full list of nine people that make up the Pension Board can be found on the Merseyside Pension Fund website, although not all nine were present for the meeting and I haven’t listed everyone who was at the meeting above.

However what does a Pensions Board actually do? Well it’s a relatively recent legal requirement to have one that only started in April 2015. As Wirral Council administer the Merseyside Pension Fund they’re therefore required to have one. The role of the Pensions Board is to help ensure the Merseyside Pension Fund complies with governance and administration requirements.

The terms of reference state its function as follows.

2.1 The purpose of the Board is to assist the Administering Authority in its role as a scheme manager of the Scheme. Such assistance is to:

a. secure compliance with the Regulations, any other legislation relating to the governance and administration of the Scheme and requirements imposed by the Pension Regulator in relation to the Scheme and;

b. ensure the effective and efficient governance and administration of Merseyside Pension Fund.

c. provide the Scheme Manager with such information as it requires ensuring that any member of the Pension Board or person to be appointed to the Board does not have a conflict of interest.

 

It’s now where we get to a rather strange problem. Agenda item 8 of the meeting, as you can read for yourself on Wirral Council’s website attempts to exclude any members of the press and public present for items 9, 9a and 10 which refers to the Local Government Act 1972, s.100A.

Before the meeting started I would’ve liked a chance to point out verbally to someone what I’m going to write about now, but a Wirral Council officer insisted we wait in the kitchen next door instead, oh well.

There is power to exclude the press and public from a public meeting. It comes from the Local Government Act 1972, s.100A(4) and applies to meeting of a principal council and because of Local Government Act 1972, s.100E also committees and subcommittees (as well as joint committees).

The Pensions Board was never set up as a committee (or subcommittee) of Wirral Council though. In fact its terms of reference for the Pensions Board make that extremely clear.

“1.3 The Board is not a committee constituted under Section 101 of the Local Government Act 1972 and therefore no general duties, responsibilities or powers assigned to such committees or to any sub-committees or officers under the constitution, standing orders or scheme of delegation of the Administering Authority apply to the Board unless expressly included in this document.”
 

So let me get this straight, a Pensions Board whose purpose is to “secure compliance with legislation”, assigns itself a power in law to exclude press and public from its meetings that it doesn’t have?

At the meeting itself on the 13th October 2015 the Independent Chair John Raisin proposed this resolution to exclude the press and public, it was seconded and agreed by the Pensions Board.

So who do you complain to about the Pensions Board not complying with the legislation? Why the Pension Board of course as its their role to ensure the Merseyside Pension Fund complies with the legislation!

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