South West Region Police Pensions Board

The South West Region Police Pensions Board assists the scheme managers for Wiltshire, Devon and Cornwall, Dorset, Gloucestershire and Avon and Somerset Constabularies.

The chair of the board is Ian Pollitt CBE (External, Independent Chair) and Deputy Chair is John Jones (Director of Finance, Dorset Police).

Police Pension Board

The Pensions Regulator (TPR) oversees and regulates the governance and administration of public service pension schemes in the UK.

Public sector pension schemes must be governed and administered as public service pension schemes under the Public Service Pensions Acts (PSPA) from April 2015. Scheme managers and pension board members must comply with a number of legal requirements.

Each public service scheme has scheme regulations which set out details of the membership and benefits to be provided under the scheme. They also identify scheme managers, and provide for pension boards and scheme advisory boards to be established. The regulations form the scheme rules.

The Police Pension Scheme 2015 sets out the statutory arrangements both at a national and local level to comply with the new legislation and manage the old and new pension schemes.

The Police Advisory Board for England and Wales will serve as the national police pension scheme advisory board and take over from the Police Negotiating Board that ceased on 31 August 2014.

The Chief Constable is the ‘scheme manager’ of the Police Pension Fund for Devon and Cornwall Police and is required to manage and administer it – with the exception of their own pension.

The Police and Crime Commissioner will be ‘scheme manager’ for matters relating to the Chief Constable’s pension as well as any deliberations/decisions on pension forfeiture.

The Pension Board is responsible for assisting the scheme manager in securing compliance with regulations and other matters.

For efficiency purposes, five Forces in the South West Region, namely Dorset, Devon and Cornwall, Avon and Somerset, Wiltshire and Gloucestershire, have collaborated to utilise one Regional Pensions Board – with a common Independent Chair appointed. This arrangement is permitted under the Public Service Pensions Acts and TPR and has been adopted by other Forces in England and Wales. The Board includes wide representation from stakeholders.

The scheme administrator keeps records, collects contributions and pays benefits to members. Each Force will have their own arrangements – in all five forces this function is fulfilled externally, by a third party under the contract.

Further information is also available from TPR.

Chair of the Board

Independent Chair – South West Region Police Pensions Board: Ian Pollitt CBE MSc MBA MA FinstLM

Personal profile

Ian is a pension consultant with extensive experience in pension design, governance and administration of public service pension schemes. He is currently the Independent Chair of the Metropolitan Police Pension Board.

Ian served as a member of Lord Hutton’s Independent Public Service Pension Commission in 2011-2011 and led the team within the Ministry of Defence that designed and delivered the new 2015 Armed Force Pension Scheme. Following a full career in the Royal Air Force Ian joined the public service pensions team at KPMG before starting his consultancy business.

Commissions have included work for the Cabinet Office and Home Office; providing governance training for police and firefighter pension boards; delivering pensions tax training for NHS Trusts, to members of the Civil Service and to police and firefighter pension boards. Recently he completed an independent report for the Scottish Government on the governance of all 20 public service pension boards in Scotland.