Agenda

To approve the minutes of the meeting held on 26 January 2024 (LPB5) and to receive information arising from them.

To receive the unconfirmed minutes of the Pension Fund Committee held on 1 March 2024.

The Board is invited to review progress against the key priorities set out in the Annual Business Plan 2023/24, as considered by the Pension Fund Committee at its meeting on 1 March 2024 and to offer any comments to the Committee.

This report will present the latest position on the Fund’s risk register, including any new risks identified since the report of the last meeting as considered by the Committee at their meeting on 1 March 2024. It will also present a new Risk Management Framework which sets out how the Fund manages identification, assessment and reporting of all risks for Funds. The Board are invited to review the report and offer any further views back to the Committee.

The Board are invited to review the Governance and Communications as presented to the Committee on 1 March 2024. This report covers the key governance and communications issues for the Fund, including a report on any breaches of regulation in the last quarter.

The Board is RECOMMENDED to note and comment on the General Code of Practice initial compliance assessment carried out by the Governance and Communications Team of the fund.

The Board are invited to review the latest Administration Report as presented to the Committee on 1 March 2024. This report updates the Committee on the key administration issues including service performance measurement, the debt recovery process and any write offs agreed in the last quarter.

The Fund initially reviewed its cyber security risk prevention and response approach in 2022. Since that point, the Pension Regulator has set out further requirements in the draft General Code of Practice, which is a separate item on this agenda, and the Fund has tailored its approach to ensure compliance with the General Code of Practice.

This report is the annual review of cyber security for the fund.

The Board are recommended to review the report and determine any further actions to be taken.

The Board asked for a report on the steps being taken to secure replacements for the Head of Pensions and the Pension Services Administration Manager, both of whom were due to retire during 2024.  Since the request, interviews have been held in respect of two posts, and an announcement made on the new appointment to the Pension Services Administration Manager role.  The process for appointing the new Head of Pensions is due to reach its conclusion before the meeting of the Board, and a verbal update will be provided direct to the Board.  

Workforce Planning is a vital function of any organisation to ensure that the appropriate workforce is in place to deliver improved services, greater productivity, and better customer focus.

The Board are invited to review the report on workforce planning.

The initial draft of the Fund’s first Responsible Investment Policy is presented as Annex 1 to this report and has been developed by the Officers following a wide engagement programme.  This engagement programme has included a survey of scheme members, which as reported to the last Committee resulted in over 4,000 responses.  The Fund’s Responsible Investment Officer also led a presentation to the Employers Forum on 24 January 2024, where those present were invited to provide feedback.

The Board are invited to review the Draft Responsible Investment Policy that sets out the Fund’s approach to responsible investment and the current issues which it sees as of highest priority as considered by the Committee at their meeting on 1 March 2024.

As requested by the Committee this report has been prepared to provide an analysis of the management fees payable by the Pension Fund pre- and post-pooling. The report is based on data to the end of March 2023.

The analysis has been prepared on a best endeavours basis using the information available. It should be noted that there are issues in making direct comparisons including different fee structures such as tiered fee scales, and the different investment targets in place for mandates. For pre-pooling fees the current portfolio valuation has been applied to the old fee scale to determine the basis points figure for comparison purposes.

The report covers management fees only, so not additional portfolio costs such as transactions fees. For Brunel fees the cost applied by Brunel for managing the portfolio has been included.

A review of management fees incurred by the Pension Fund pre- and post-pooling.

The Board is  RECOMMENDED to note the report.

The Board are invited to confirm the issues they wish to include in their latest report to the Committee.

Members are invited to identify any issues they wish to add to the agenda of the next meeting of this Board.