Archived decisions

AT A MEETING of the PENSION FUND PANEL held at The Castle, Winchester on Monday 22 December 2008.

Chairman:

p Councillor T.K. Thornber, CBE

Councillors:

p F.G. Allgood p P.R.C. Hutcheson

p M.F. Cartwright p M.N. Kemp-Gee

p B.D. Dash p A.R. Ludlow

p A.G. Dowden a J.J.W. Maxwell

Co-opted members:

p Councillor I.R. Carr (Test Valley Borough Council)

a Councillor D. Jones (Portsmouth City Council)

p Mr E.W. Hughes (pensioners' representative)

p Mr P. Reynolds (employee representative)

Independent adviser:

p Mr H. Cole

250 APOLOGIES

    Councillors J.J.W. Maxwell and D. Jones gave their apologies.

251 DECLARATIONS OF INTEREST

    Members were mindful that, where they believed they had a personal or prejudicial interest in any matter to be considered at the meeting, they should, normally at the time of the debate, declare their interest and, having regard to the circumstances described in paragraphs 9, 10, 11 and 12 of the County Council's Code of Conduct, consider whether to leave the meeting whilst the matter was discussed.

    Councillor M.F. Cartwright declared a personal interest in connection with the report on Hedge Fund Investments (Minute 255 below) in respect of the legal firm Stephenson Harwood.

252 CHAIRMAN'S COMMUNICATIONS

    The Chairman announced that he had approved the attendance of three Cabinet members (Councillors J.K. Glen, M.J. Kendal and R.J. Perry) at the meeting and a representative of the Audit Commission (Mr N. Smith) because of the alleged Madoff fraud. He also reminded the members of the Panel that decisions were not taken on party political lines. As a result he deplored attributed comments by another councillor which ignored the cross party working by the Panel by publicly criticising the exposure to the Madoff investment without knowing the facts or acknowledging that the investments are in the Hampshire Pension Fund not the County Council.

253 PENSION ADMINISTRATIVE STRATEGY

    This item had been included on the Agenda as it had previously been decided to send it to Panel members for consideration following the last Panel meeting. In the event as there was insufficient time for consideration at this meeting, the Panel noted its circulation and were invited to send any comments to the County Treasurer.

254 EXCLUSION OF PRESS AND PUBLIC

    RESOLVED:

    That the public be excluded from the meeting during the following items of business, as it is likely, in view of the nature of the business to be transacted or the nature of the proceedings, that if members of the public were present during those items there would be disclosure to them of exempt information within Paragraph 3 of Part 1 of Schedule 12A to the Local Government Act 1972, and further that in all the circumstances of the case, the public interest in maintaining the exemption outweighs the public interest in disclosing the information, for the reasons set out in the reports.

255 HEDGE FUND INVESTMENTS (EXEMPT)

    The Panel received an update from the County Treasurer on hedge fund investments.
    [SUMMARY OF A MINUTE WHICH CONTAINS EXEMPT INFORMATION]