CUKPA COMMITTEE MEETING

TUESDAY  15 JULY 2025     

Grand Union Studios, Ladbroke Grove, London W10 5AD

MINUTES OF MEETING

1.SAFETY MOMENT –  DAH opened the meeting at 10.30am with the Safety Moment which focussed on care when using garden machinery. Also, taking care when stepping backwards off raised surfaces. We may believe we are safe workers. Thought and care is always required.

2.PRESENT/APOLOGIES –  

There were 7 attendees:

Chris Simes (CS)           Steve Wilson (SW)         Alan Higgins (DAH)                      

Peter Young (PY)     Neil Jones (NJ)      Alan Dennison (AD)      Steve Ladle (SL)

Apologies received from Andrew Nisbet (AN) and Grace Shacklady (GS)                                                                                                                                                                                     

3.WELCOME – DAH welcomed members to the meeting and thanked Alan Dennison for making the arrangements. DAH welcomed new committee member Steve Ladle to his first ‘in person’ meeting. Steve has already done much work in relation to the Pensions Bill 2025 and CUKPA representations to MP’s. DAH mentioned that the Agenda had been necessarily modified since its email issue. Meeting secretary (NJ) issued revised paper copies.

4.MINUTES OF THE LAST MEETING – held on 19 February 2025 via zoom. Meeting minutes had been issued to committee members and were approved as a true record of the meeting. Proposed CS, seconded SW.

5.MATTERS ARISING –

NJ reviewed the Action items from the minutes of the 19 February committee meeting. Ongoing matters to be discussed under relevant subject heading later in the meeting.

Points to note:

• DAH had requested that a sub-group review the format and style of the Insight newsletter. NJ to contact other sub-team members AD, CS, SL to arrange a review meeting. Due to other matters taking precedence, principally the Trustee changes, this didn’t happen.
• Action – NJ to initiate future work on this.
• It was agreed that the AGM would be held on 8 October 2025 and that a venue needed to be selected and booked. Post meeting, AD had booked the Medical Society of London, Chandos Street.

6 & 7.CHEVRON MATTERS – There was a considerable amount to discuss under this item, principally around the Trustee changes and Association contacts with Trustees and the company.

PLAN TRUSTEE

The company had announced that the existing Trustee Board would be replaced by a ‘Professional Corporate Sole Trustee’ and the current board disbanded. AD, as both an existing Trustee and CUKPA committee member, was able to provide the meeting with further available information. The company has appointed a UK company: Independent Governance Group (IGG) to become this sole Trustee.

Post meeting, AD, has submitted the following summary:

‘IGG – AD informed the committee that IGG have officially been appointed as the new PCST, contracts are still being drafted and due diligence carried out. The trustees had a meeting with the three representatives of IGG and a sense of comfort gained. They were asked a number of probing questions by AD, Stewart Wright and the chair Simon Owens and the response was favourable ie their absolute priority is the plan and the members. The trustee named will be known as Ross Trustees Ltd., there are a number of senior personnel changes in the current board as Beth Claar is retiring in August to be replaced by Steve Winerman. Matt Wright has opted to take advantage of the early leaver process and his place on the board will be taken by Ross Trustee Ltd. which comprise of Dickon Best, Claire Kember and Annabelle Hardiman. There will be changes to the CEL (Chevron Energy Limited) board members which are to be confirmed.’

ALLIANCE GROUP REPORT. WRITING TO YOUR MP

The discussion on this subject was led by Steve Ladle who has been very active in lobbying his MP on various pensions matters as committee reviews and the Pensions Bill 2025 make their way through the political process. This has also involved indirect contact with Mr. Torsten Bell, Minister for Pensions.

SL has also been engaged on an individual basis with Hewlett Packard Pension Alliance (HPPA), a group to which CUKPA has previously belonged and are making representations to the Work and Pensions Select Committee and the Minster for Pensions.

SL had prepared a letter which individual committee members were able to submit to their own MP’s.

The focus in these representations is around the role of Trustees to support plan members and the fairness of any fund surplus distribution. Such distribution is still seen to rest at the sponsoring company’s discretion.

Action: SL agreed to update the ‘individual’s letter’ to MP’s with current views, for CUKPA member submission.

 On this same general subject, CUKPA had written to the Pensions Regulator concerning the move to a PCST, mentioned earlier in these minutes, raising major concerns about the role and control of such a Trustee body. An acknowledgement has been received. This action clearly hit a nerve within the company based on comments received.

LIVING STANDARDS & WELL BEING SURVEY

At the meeting DAH and NJ attended between Simon Owens (Trustee) and Ashley Sanders (Company) on 22 January 2025 and reported at the February committee meeting, the idea of such a survey was raised and agreed. Subsequently, Towers Watson, a professional survey company, have been engaged to prepare a survey questionnaire and issue via the plan administrator Barnett Waddingham for member’s response. At the time of writing, this survey is being sent to members.

MEETINGS WITH THE COMPANY

NJ met with Ms. Harriet Wu, company appointed trustee, in Canary Wharf on 19 June 2025. DAH and NJ met with Ashley Sanders via MSTeams on 24 June 2025.

Both these meetings focussed on feedback and observations from the Trustee meeting held with IGG on 17 June 2025. Comments were consistent with those reported by AD earlier in these minutes. Attendees were reassured that IGG stated their views that their role was to support the Plan and its members. IGG were very aware of current review work relating to the 2025 Pensions Bill.

Both DAH and NJ used these meetings to continue to press for pensions increases, particularly the discretionary pre-97 elements.

PENSIONER MEETINGS

DAH attended a meeting of Chevron retirees on 19 June 2025 in Aberdeen.

Texaco Aberdeen retirees plan to hold a meeting in early November at which CUKPA will be represented.

The London Texaco retirees meet on 17 October 2025 at the RAF Club Piccadilly. Again, CUKPA will be represented.

8.ASSOCIATION MATTERS

TREASURER’S REPORT – Treasurer PY presented interim accounts up to 30 June 2025 with comments as follows:

• Subscriptions appear stable. However a reduction in annual Standing orders is masked by a one time increase due to payment of arrears.
• Travel expenses are significantly higher due to increased activity and fare increases.
• Insight postage costs now almost double the printing charges.
• IT costs increased due to the one-off purchase of a laptop.
• Currently running a deficit for the year of c. £1,400. Unlikely to be sustainable. It was agreed that members currently paying £10 would be asked to increase their subscription to £15. It was noted that subscriptions had not been increased for many years.
• Overall healthy balance of funds c. £9,700.

In the absence of a formal auditor being sourced, AD and CS agreed to conduct another review of accounts in lieu of such audit.

Action – AD, CS to review accounts when appropriate.

COMMITTEE MEMBERSHIP – The Nomination form for Mr. Steve Ladle to join the committee was completed, proposed and seconded. His appointment will be ratified at the AGM. NJ advised that the only other current member to be re-appointed at the AGM was Mr. Alan Dennison.

MEMBERSHIP STATUS – CS had issued an interim membership report prior to the meeting. The Association database shows 833 current members. There have been 18 new members in 2025 to date. All new members have elected to take Insight electronically. Tracking deceased members is a problem as data is not readily available.

Action – DAH to attend this year’s Texaco retirees lunch in Aberdeen and further promote Association business and benefits to membership.

Action – CS, PY to work on deceased member information.

WEBSITE REPORT

AN had offered his apologies for the meeting and had issued an email report to committee members, which was summarised to the meeting by PY.

This report covered the following main subject items:

Member survey regarding Sole Trustee

Website Review

Automated update of membership payments

Website recovery, support and backup

NEXT INSIGHT ISSUE  – The next Insight Issue will be late October. Submissions to Editor AD by end September/early October.

RISK REGISTER – AD reviewed those items in the risk register requiring discussion and updates.

One new item was identified: ‘failure to communicate with new trustee’.

Action – At the appropriate time, DAH/NJ to contact the new trustee and introduce CUKPA.

9.ANY OTHER BUSINESS –

DAH to issue updated committee member contact list.

This has been done, however a few minor adjustments remain.

AGM – this year’s AGM will be held on 8 October 2025 at the Medical Society of London, Chandos Street

10. NEXT MEETING –To be held in February 2026 via zoom.

Post meeting, the meeting is proposed for Wednesday 18 February 2026

              The meeting closed at 13.30 hours.