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Remuneration Board |
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Meeting Venue: |
Conference Room 4B - Tŷ Hywel |
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Meeting date: |
Friday, 28 November 2014 |
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Meeting time: |
9:00 – 17:00 |
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Concise Minutes: WRB (28) |
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Board Members: |
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Sandy Blair CBE DL (Chair) Mary Carter Stuart Castledine Professor Monojit Chatterji Professor Laura McAllister |
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Attendees: |
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Richard Bettley John Chick, National Assembly for Wales Adrian Crompton, Director of Assembly Business Anna Daniel, Head of Strategic Transformation Paul Carberry, Wragge & Co Hannah Beacham, Wragge & Co Kevin Milton, Wragge & Co |
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Board Staff: |
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Gareth Price (Clerk) Daniel Collier (Deputy Clerk) |
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1 Chair's Introduction
1.1 The Chair welcomed Board members to the meeting.
1.2 Subject to minor amendments, the Board agreed the minutes of the meeting on 16-17 October 2014.
1.3 The Board noted and discussed the paper to note - a letter from the Presiding Officer regarding the level of staffing support required to manage the demands placed on Assembly Members.
1.4 The Board noted the work programme up to April 2015.
2 Assembly Member salaries: Review of consultation launch
2.1 The Board discussed the launch and the initial reaction to its consultation on Assembly Member salaries for the Fifth Assembly.
2.2 The Board will consider all responses to the consultation when it closes on 12 January 2015.
3 Assembly Member staffing and Assembly Members Support Staff: Pooling of Staffing Allowances between Members and Continuous Service
3.1 The Board considered a paper highlighting arrangements that exist in the Scottish Parliament which permit support staff to have more than one Member named as their employer, as was raised during the consultation on staffing allowances.
3.2 The Board agreed that the system for pooling staff used in Scotland would add complexity without increasing the flexibility to the system in Wales.
3.3 The Board concluded that there was no sensible, legal way of providing continuity of employment of AMSS and noted a letter from IPSA which echoed that opinion.
Action points:
- MBS to respond to questions which emerged from the discussion regarding the legal implications of group staff, who are employed by the party leader, when the leader changes.
- MBS to conduct further research into how the health service (for example) is able to make redundancy payments repayable where the person gains a new job within the service.
- The Research Service to provide, as part of the paper on AMSS benefits at the next Board meeting, information on insurance costs for critical illness cover for AMSS.
4 Determination: Equality Assessment Group on proposals for Assembly Member Pension Arrangements, Allowances and Support
4.1 The Board noted the paper provided by Diverse Cymru, which highlighted their observations on consultations on AM pensions, AM Allowances and level of support available to AMs.
4.2 The Board agreed its considerations on pension arrangements, allowances and support for Assembly Members to feed into the final Equality Impact Assessment for the Determination.
5 Assembly Member Pension arrangements
5.1 The Chair welcomed Paul Carberry, Hannah Beacham and Kevin Milton to the meeting and invited them to introduce the new draft pension scheme rules for Assembly Members in the Fifth Assembly.
5.2 The Board discussed the new pension scheme rules and agreed to make amendments.
5.3 The Board will agree the pension scheme rules for inclusion in the consultation on the Determination for the Fifth Assembly in the spring term.
6 Paper to Note
6.1 The Board noted the correspondence from the Assembly Commission and agreed to respond. The Chair emphasised the importance of responding to the Assembly Commission and queries from all individual Assembly Members.