Greater Manchester Pension Fund (GMPF) has established a Local Pension Board to assist Tameside Metropolitan Borough Council (TMBC) in its role as administering authority, in particular with:
- Securing compliance with the regulations, any other legislation relating to the governance and administration of the Scheme, and requirements imposed by the Pensions Regulator in relation to the Scheme
- Ensuring the effective and efficient governance and administration of the Scheme.
Employer representatives
- Councillor Joe Kitchen (Chair) – Local Authority representative
- Councillor Vimal Choksi – Local Authority representative
- Michael Cullen – Local Authority Treasurer representative
- Gillian Duckworth – Local Authority Chief Lawyer representative
- Paul Taylor – Representative of non-Local Authority employers
Scheme member representatives
- Tracy Delaney – UNISON
- Carl Greatbatch - UNISON
- Chris Goodwin – Unite
- Alan Kniveton - Pensioner member representative
- David Hope - GMB union
Register of interests
The Local Pension Board maintains a register of board members' relevant interests. This is published on an annual basis as part of our report and accounts.
Each member of the Local Pension Board, the GMPF Management Panel and Advisory Panel and Working Groups formally considers declarations of interest at each meeting. In addition, an annual return of all declarations of interest is obtained from the members by their respective Councils. Those relevant to GMPF Local Pension Board are listed below:
| Name of Board Member | Position & Organisation | Organisation relationship with GMPF | Date notified |
| M Cullen | Employee of Stockport MBC | Contributing employer | 16/06/2019 |
| C Goodwin | Employee of the University of Manchester | Contributing employer | 24/04/2017 |
| P Taylor | Employee of the Manchester College | Contributing employer | 21/04/2017 |
| T Delaney | Employee of Oldham Council | Contributing employer | 19/05/2025 |
Terms of Reference
The Local Pension Board’s terms of reference define its key responsibilities and outline how appointments to Board are made, as set out below.
Key responsibilities of the Local Pension Board
In summary, the Board’s key responsibilities are:
- To secure compliance with the regulations, any other legislation relating to the governance and administration of the Scheme, and requirements imposed by the Pensions Regulator in relation to the Scheme.
- To ensure the effective and efficient governance and administration of the Scheme.
In its role, the Board will have oversight of the administration of the Fund including:
- The effectiveness of the decision-making process.
- The direction of the Fund and its overall objectives.
- The level of transparency in the conduct of the Fund’s activities.
- The administration of benefits and contributions.
The Board will provide the Administering Authority with such information as it requires to ensure that any member of the Board or person to be appointed to the Board does not have a conflict of interest.
The Board will ensure it complies with the Pensions Regulator’s guidance and relevant codes of practice. It will help to ensure that the Administering Authority is managing the Fund in line with the Pension Regulator’s expectations.
The Board will meet sufficiently regularly to discharge its duties and responsibilities effectively.
Appointments to the Local Pension Board
Employer representatives must be office holders or senior employees of employers of the Fund or have experience representing scheme employers in a similar capacity.
Officers or elected members of the Administering Authority responsible for the discharge of any function of the Administering Authority under the LGPS cannot serve as a member of the Board.
The North West Trade Union Congress (TUC North West) will coordinate the appointment of scheme member representatives to the Board, excluding the pensioner member representative. Tameside MBC as the Administering Authority will write to the TUC North West when a term of office is due to expire to ask it to appoint a replacement representative.
The Administering Authority will advertise and recruit to the position of pensioner member representative in liaison with the Chair.
The Administering Authority will write to the Greater Manchester local authorities to ask them to coordinate the appointment of a representative of Greater Manchester Treasurers and a representative of Greater Manchester Chief Lawyers.
The Administering Authority will propose one of the representatives be the Chair. There will be no vice-chair.