The roles and responsibilities of the secretariat are listed below:

• Circulate papers in advance of meetings.
• Arrange board meetings for the Scheme’s calendar year, with agreement of the Chair and the other board members.
• Arrange any additional board meetings, if and when required.
• Prepare draft agenda and cross reference with the Scheme’s annual activities (e.g. Resource Accounts, Forecasts, Audit Reports), as appropriate.
• Distribute the agenda and papers to the board members in good time for proper consideration prior to a meeting.
• Ensure that the board receives regular reports [via service providers or sub-committees] that enable them to assess all aspects of the fund’s operations.
• Draft the minutes of the meeting, agree with the Chairman and distribute to board members in a timely manner.
• Ensure that decisions, particularly those taken between meetings, are properly recorded and referred to in the subsequent meetings.
• Ensure that the board is properly constituted at all times.
• Maintain a register of interests.
• ID in advance agenda items that may raise conflict of interest for some members, and put in place mitigating actions to avoid conflicts of interest materialising.
  • Capture and record all decisions on managing potential conflicts of interests.
• Keep safely the original signed minutes with other relevant papers in secure facilities as determined by the board.
  • The records of pension board meetings and decisions must be kept indefinitely.
• Ensure that actions arising from board meetings are logged, attributed and monitored.
• Ensure there is a procedure in place for receiving, checking and onwards transmitting / querying all PB member expense claims.
• Maintain a list of documents that the PB members must be conversant with to carry out their role.
  • Ensure that board members have access to this list.
  • Ensure that the board has copies of appropriate professional advice and sufficient information to make properly informed decisions.
• Establish and manage the training / knowledge management framework.
• Arrange pre-appointment training for PB members, including mentoring sessions with existing PB members, and establish a Training Needs Analysis for each PB member.
• Maintain a record of the training undertaken by individual PB members.
• Be satisfied that PB members are aware of their responsibility for reporting breaches and the legal requirements and TPR guidance relating to reporting breaches.
• Ensure that any complaints are properly handled.
• Ensure that any significant events relating to the Scheme are reported to the relevant authority in accordance with legislative/regulatory requirements.
• On behalf of the board, ensure that any necessary returns are forwarded to relevant authority.
• Reimburse Board Member expenses in line with current policy.