Agenda and draft minutes

1.1                RESOLVED that the minutes of the meeting of the Pensions Board held on 11 March 2024 be agreed.

1.1                No interest was declared.

1.1                The Board was advised there were no breaches to report since the last meeting.

1.2                RESOLVED that the report be noted.

1.1                The Treasury and Investment Manager presented the Action Log report to the Board and provided the below updates:

·        Action No.1: Administration Strategy – update to be provided under agenda item 11 – General Update Part Two.

·        Action No.2: Data Improvement Plan – update to be provided under agenda item 11 – General Update Part Two.

·        Action No.3: Risk Register – update provided under agenda item agenda item 6 – General Update Part One.

·        Action No.4: Responses to questions raised at the March 2024 meeting were reported to the Chair.

·        Action No.5: New Regulations – update provided under agenda item 7 – The Pension Regulator’s General Code of Practice.

·        Action No.6: Audit of Accounts – ongoing.

1.2                With reference to Action No.4 the Chair asked if the responses had been reported back to other members of the Board and suggested it is either covered in a General Update or share the email with them.

ACTION: Head of Payroll and Pensions to share email with other Board members.

1.3                RESOLVED that the report be noted.

1.1                The Treasury and Investment Manager provided an update and asked Members to note and advise of any events attended or specific reading completed outside of the Board as it was a requirement to record this information in the Annual Report.

1.2                The Treasury and Investment Manager advised that training for the Pension Investment Committee Members was being reviewed and would be offered to Pension Board Members also.

1.3                The Chair referred to the table titled “Members’ Progress” against the Pension Regulator’s Toolkit’ and noted that nothing had been recorded against Mark Booker.

ACTION: Treasury and Investment Manager to update the table to record Mark Booker had completed and passed the core modules.

1.4                The Board was advised that if there were any CIPFA events relevant to the Pension Board that they would be interested in attending, they should inform the Treasury and Investment Manager

1.5                RESOLVED that the report be noted.

1.1                The Treasury and Investment Manager presented the report on behalf of the Director of Finance and provided the below updates:

Pension Fund Accounts and Draft Pension Fund Annual Report

·        The new auditors, KPMG, expect to complete the audit work of the pension fund accounts by end October 2024 but the audit sign off may be November or December.

·        The Pension Fund Annual Report deadline to be published is 1 December 2024. The Chair noted that comments he suggested have been taken on board and included in the report.

·        Due to the covid pandemic and war in Ukraine the values of funds fell in previous years. However, for the year ended 31 March 2024 the value of the funds had increased to £1.8bn.

1.2                With reference to the Pension Fund Annual Report, the Chair asked how officers ensure they were covering everything they needed to, or were required to, and whether it was a compliance exercise or did the Council see it as a statutory exercise. The Treasury and Investment Manager advised the Council saw it as both. It provided more details than just a set of accounts; the Annual Report provided information on the Pension Investment Committee and the Pension Board and broke down funds into more detail. This would help when Freedom of Information requests were received as responses could refer to the Annual Report.

1.3                The Chair noted the Annual Report contained a lot of information, but it appeared information had been added incrementally as the order did not seem coherent. The Chair suggested for next year’s report it may be worthwhile to do a review. The Board agreed and recommended to the Council to review the report for next year in terms of content, structure and style.

ACTION: Director of Finance and Treasury and Investment Manager to note.

1.4                The Chair referred to paragraph D1 and the Strategic Asset Allocation table and noted Fixed Income Unity Trust should read Fixed Income Unit Trust.

ACTION: Treasury and Investment Manager to amend.

1.5                The Chair referred to paragraph 11.1 and asked whether the external auditors have issued their statement. The Treasury and Investment Manager confirmed they had not and would change the wording to reflect that.

ACTION: Treasury and Investment Manager to amend wording in paragraph 11.1.

Procurement of Actuarial, Governance and Advisory Services

·        The procurement process for pension actuarial, governance and advisory services had started and was out to tender with a deadline of 4 October 2024 for submissions. The new contract would start from 1 December 2024.

Risk Register

·        The risk register included tracked changes to highlight where amendments and/or updates had been made.

1.6                The Chair referred to paragraph 5.5 and sought clarification on the statement regarding late payment of contributions to personal pension schemes. The Head of Payroll and Pensions agreed to clarify what was meant as it appeared to be an erroneous statement.

              ACTION: Head of Payroll and Pensions to check paragraph 5.5 and provide an update.

1.7                The  ...  view the full minutes text for item 6.

1.1                The Treasury and Investment Manager presented the report on behalf of the Director of Finance and provided the below updates:

·        There had been a consultation on changes to the General Code and the Pension Regulator had made some changes.

·        The Head of Payroll and Pensions noted the Code was very comprehensive. The council had up to six months to ensure that all pension scheme providers were compliant.

·        A thorough review of the Regulations had been conducted by the Director of Finance, Treasury and Investment Manager and Head of Payroll and Pensions and found that the council was 95% compliant. The two driving factors of this were the Administration Strategy and the Data Improvement Plan.

·        The review would be shared with the Board in December. The Chair noted it would be important for the Board to see the evaluation of actions taken and actions proposed to ensure full compliance. It would be equally important to understand how the council was going to monitor its compliance going forward.

1.2                The Chair noted the Board welcomes the steps the Council have taken to date and looks forward to a comprehensive report at the next meetings of the Pension Investment Committee in November and the Pension Board in December.

1.3                RESOLVED that the report be noted.

1.1                The Treasury and Investment Manager presented the Work Programme report for the period up to Quarter 2, June 2025.

1.2                RESOLVED that the report be noted.

1.1                The Board noted the future meeting dates as below. Board Members to alert the Treasury and Investment Manager or the Governance Officer as soon as possible if they are unable to attend.

·        10 December 2024

·        10 March 2025

·        16 June 2025

1.2                RESOLVED that the future meeting dates be noted.

1.1                It was moved, seconded and RESOLVED that under Section 100(A)(4) of the Local Government Act 1972, the press and public were excluded from the meeting for the following items of business on the grounds that they would involve the likely disclosure of exempt information as defined in paragraphs 3, 4 and 5 of Part 1 of Schedule 12(A) of the Act, as amended by the Local Authorities (Executive Arrangements) (Access to Information) (Amendments) (England) Regulations 2006:

·        Item 11. General Update – Part Two

1.1                The Treasury and Investment Manager advised the recommendations outlined in the report were for the Board to note.

              Pension Administration

1.2                The Head of Payroll and Pensions provided an oversight of administration activity and highlighted the below:

·        Transfer of Lewisham Homes staff to the Council on 1 October 2023 increased workload of the Pension Team; aggregations for all 450 Lewisham Homes staff has been completed.

·        Annual Benefit Statements produced for 2024.

·        Audit with new auditors, KPMG, is ongoing.

·        The Insights reporting tool provided greater ability to pick up more data was now up and running.

·        Purchased Heywood ISP service with the first phase of work scheduled to take place in November 2024.

1.3                The Chair referred to the Insights tool and asked what the impact had been on its use so far. The Head of Payroll and Pensions advised it provided a data quality report and could now obtain an immediate Insight report; it gave a variety of reports that the council had not been able to run previously.

1.4                With reference to the Data Improvement Plan, the Chair noted he would like to see some information on the use of the Insights tool in or alongside the Data Improvement Plan in the December report to Board.

1.5                The Chair asked the Head of Payroll and Pensions if she was satisfied that the risks to which the scheme was exposed were adequately reflected in the risk register. The Head of Payroll and Pensions advised the risk may be on resources.

1.6                The Chair requested, that alongside the report on the Development Improvement Plan in December, the Board would also be provided with information on the implications of the new legislation and the actions already taken and the risk register to be updated, where necessary.

              Quarter 2 Investment Performance Report

1.7                The Treasury and Investment Manager presented the report and advised that the report had been presented to the Pensions Investment Committee and was presented to Pension Board for information.

Pooling Considerations

1.8                The Pensions Investment Committee was looking at putting more investment into Harbourvest. The Conservative Government proposed authorities look at more pooling into bigger investments; the new Labour Government had taken this on board and wanted to continue with the larger pools. Local authorities may have to invest through the London Collective Investment Vehicle (LCIV) and make bigger investments. Government had said they wanted to use some of the pension fund money to invest in the UK; this could bring up issues in the fiduciary duty on the return on investments. Government had asked authorities for more consultation feedback which would take place week commencing 23 September.

1.9                The Treasury and Investment Manager noted that if the council was forced to pool, it may have to sell its equity investments such as Storebrand which could lead to losses from selling before the investment matures and additional fees from transition costs.

1.10            The Pension Investment Committee delayed not making a decision on the Harbourvest investment due to anticipated  ...  view the full minutes text for item 11.